What is a Merchant Account
All credit card transactions are processed through a merchant account. This is an account with the bank that processes payments and moves the money from the credit card holder (the purchaser) to the seller (you, the club.) Your organization must enter into an agreement with the merchant account provider to process funds on your behalf, and merchant account providers perform due diligence on clubs to ensure they can honour the sales they are making. Zone4 offers three levels of processing depending on your club’s size and needs. The tables below compare the fees and the main differences between the 3 levels.
The first option, using Zone4’s merchant accounts to process transactions, is the easiest to set up, but requires you to contact us to set up.
You can save some money by setting up a Stripe account. You can do this without contacting us, but Stripe requires you to set up an account in addition to your Zone4 account and provide a picture of government ID as verification.
You can save even more money with a Helcim account, but the administrative overhead of handling your own merchant account is very large. We only recommend this to clubs with full time staff that are processing a large transaction volume.
Processing Fees
| Zone4 | Stripe | Helcim | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Card Fee | 4% | 2.9% | 2.39% |
| Per Transaction Fee | $1 | $0.30 | $0.25 |
| Per Person Fee (for Races and Nordiq Canada memberships to cover application usage fees) | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Per Person Fee (other registrations) | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Monthly Cost | $0 | $0 | $0 |
The Credit Card Fee is a percentage of the payment. The Per Transaction Fee is a fixed charge for each transaction, while the Per Person Fees are charged for each participant as described in the row labels.
Provider rates, availability, and terms can change. Confirm the current terms with the provider before setting registration prices.
Comparing the Options
| Zone4 | Stripe | Helcim | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onboarding Timeline | Instant *¹ | Instant *² | 1 Week |
| Merchant Account Holder | Zone4 | Your club | Your club |
| Name Appearing on Credit Card Statement | Zone4 | Your club name | Your club name |
| Custom Branding at the top of Registration Pages | No | No | 300x928px image |
| Credit Card Refunds | No | Yes | Yes |
| Add charges to credit cards | No | Yes | Yes |
| Option to allow club to pay processing fee | Yes | No | Yes |
| Charge registrants a custom processing fee | No | No | Yes |
| Payout Schedule | Weekly *³ | Weekly | Daily |
| Subscription Payments | No | No | Yes*5 |
| Annual transaction volume recommended | <$100,000 | <$100,000 | >$30,000 |
| Available in: | CAN | CAN/USA*4 | CAN/USA |
The recommended annual transaction volumes are guidance, not strict eligibility limits, and overlap; compare the setup and administrative requirements as well as the fees when choosing a provider.
- Zone4 interviews all new clubs upon club application to determine the best processing option and suitability for the Zone4 processing option.
- Stripe onboards applicants instantly but may require additional verification after their automated system has evaluated your application details.
- Zone4 remits funds every Thursday for all the transactions collected the previous week Monday to Sunday. Clubs can set a minimum remittance threshold if they don’t want to receive deposits for small amounts (to reduce bank fees.)
- Stripe is available in 25 countries and growing. See here for current complete list: https://stripe.com/global
- Helcim offers subscription payments as part of their platform. This is outside the management of Zone4 but may be useful for recurring pricing plans required by some organizations.
Signing Up
- If you don’t have a Zone4 club account yet, start by signing up here: https://zone4.ca/signup
- For information on signing up with Stripe see here: Setting up a Stripe Account
- For information on signing up with Helcim see here: Signing up with Helcim
Your club may already have a merchant account for offline (card present) sales. An offline account is not usually able to accept payments online, and credit card companies charge higher rates for online transactions. In order to accept online payments through Zone4, you need an online merchant account with either Zone4, Stripe, or Helcim.