Surcharging Fees in Pinch

You can pass your processing fees on to your customers by setting the surcharge property when creating a Payment. Before enabling surcharging, make sure it complies with any laws applicable to your business. If you are unsure, consult your legal counsel.

⚠️

Surcharging rules in Australia: the Competition and Consumer Act prohibits surcharges that exceed the actual cost of accepting that payment method. You must not profit from surcharges. Consult your legal adviser if you are unsure whether surcharging applies to your business.

Endpoints that support surcharging

The following endpoints accept a surcharge property:

• POST /payments — Create or update a scheduled Payment
• POST /payments/realtime — Create a realtime Payment
• GET /fees/calculate — Preview the fee amount before charging

How to use it

Set surcharge to an array containing one or both of the accepted values: "bank-account" and/or "credit-card".

{
  "payerId": "pyr_abc123",
  "amount": 10000,
  "description": "Invoice #456",
  "transactionDate": "2026-08-01",
  "surcharge": ["credit-card", "bank-account"]
}

Passing both values means the surcharge is applied regardless of which payment method the Payer uses. This is useful when you schedule a Payment in advance but the Payer might switch payment methods before it processes.

How the surcharge is calculated

Preview fees before charging

Use the Calculate Fees endpoint to see the exact surcharge amount before creating a Payment:

GET https://api.getpinch.com.au/test/fees/calculate?amount=10000&sourceType=credit-card&surcharge=true
Authorization: ******
pinch-version: 2020.1

{
  "amount": 10000,
  "fee": 220,
  "total": 10220
}