ⓘ This article is for Event Organizers
If you're using Expo Pass Registration and want to offset credit card processing fees, you have the option to add an extra fee to your registration transactions. This is a great way to help ensure you receive the full amount of your intended registration price.
Here’s how it works — and how we calculate the total fee.
⚙️ Setup Process
After connecting your bank account through Stripe to your Expo Pass event, you can control whether or not to pass processing fees to your attendees — directly within your event settings.
To enable or adjust fees:
Log in to Expo Pass and open your event.
Click Registration ➜ Manage Fees.
Click Edit Fees to manage which registration levels will pass the 4.95% Credit Card Processing fee on to attendees.
Select the levels you want to apply fees to, then click Done and Save.
❗ Important: If you add new registration levels later, you’ll need to return to this section to apply fees to those new levels.
How the Fee Is Calculated
When incorporating an additional fee to offset credit card processing costs, it’s important to understand that the new, higher registration amount will also be subject to processing fees.
In other words, while we often refer to this as “passing along credit card fees,” what’s actually happening is that Stripe applies its standard 4.95% fee to the entire charged amount — including the added fee itself.
This compounding ensures that after all fees are deducted, the Event Organizer still receives the full intended registration price. The calculation is designed specifically to account for this layered fee structure.
Example and Formula to Use
Let’s say your registration price is $1000, and you want to pass the credit card processing fee of 4.95% on to the attendee. You may assume multiplying $1000 × 1.0495 = $1049.50 is correct — but it’s not.
Why? Because the extra 4.95% you're charging also gets hit with a 4.95% fee. That additional fee must be accounted for — so we use a specific formula to "back in" the total charge that gives you exactly $1000 after fees.
The formula for this calculation is as follows:
$ Registration Fee
---------------------------------- = $Total Registrant Amount
1.00 - Credit Card Processing Fee
So for example, a Registration Fee of $1000 with the intent of passing along the credit card processing fee of 4.95% means the registrant will pay in total = $1052.08.
$1000.00
---------------------- = $1052.08
1.00 - 0.0495
⚠️ Why You Can’t Use Simple Multiplication
If you just multiply $1000 × 1.0495 = $1049.50, you’re not accounting for the fact that the fee is taken from the entire amount charged, including the fee itself. This means you’d end up with less than $1000 after fees are removed.
The method above ensures that your net payout equals your original intended registration price.