It's important to understand how fees work when receiving online payments through Stripe. This article explains the types of fees you may encounter, how they are calculated, and how you can manage or offset their impact on your payouts.
What Fees Are Deducted?
When you collect a payment through Stripe (for example, a €60 membership), there are two main types of fees deducted before the funds are transferred to your bank account.
Standard Fees:
These are the default fees applied to every online payment processed:
1% fee to MAAT
Approximately 1.5% + €0.25 fee to Stripe
Example:If you receive €60, here’s a typical breakdown:
Fee Type | Amount |
MAAT Fee (1%) | €0.60 |
Stripe Fee (1.5% + €0.25) | €1.15 |
Total Fees | €1.75 |
Net Payout | €58.25 |
Important: Stripe's fee (1.5% + €0.25) is an estimate. Actual charges may vary slightly depending on the payment method used by the student (e.g., international cards, Apple Pay, or SEPA transfers). For the most up-to-date and detailed pricing, visit: https://stripe.com/en-es/pricing
Additional Stripe Fees (Retry Charges & Billing):
Stripe may also apply additional fees in specific situations. The most common case is when a payment fails (due to insufficient funds or an expired card), and Stripe automatically retries the charge after a delay.
These automatic retry attempts are not free. This service typically add around 0.7% extra to the transaction cost.
Example Stripe Summary
Below is an example from the Stripe dashboard showing how fees affect your total payout:
Category | Count | Amount |
Charges (Payments) | 45 | €2,475.00 |
Standard Fees | - | -€73.25 |
Additional Fees | 8 | -€16.97 |
Net Payout | 53 | €2,384.78 |
You can access this information in your Stripe account by navigating to Reports → Balance Summary.
Differences Between MAAT and Stripe
It’s common to see a difference between the number of active students in MAAT and the transactions recorded in Stripe. This occurs in two typical scenarios:
Cash Payments: If a student is marked as paid in cash on MAAT, they will appear as active in MAAT but will not appear in Stripe, since no online transaction was recorded.
Bank Transfers (SEPA/BACS): If a student pays via bank transfer, they may be marked as active in MAAT once payment is manually confirmed. However, Stripe will only reflect the transaction once the funds arrive, which may take a few days.
Passing Fees to Students
If you want to consistently receive a net amount (e.g., €60), you can incorporate the estimated transaction fees into your pricing model.
For example:
Set the membership price at €62 instead of €60.
After subtracting the estimated 3.3% in total fees, you’ll still receive close to €60.
This method ensures predictable income and avoids unexpected reductions in your payouts.
Summary
Expect approximately 3.3% in total fees per transaction (1% MAAT + ~2.3% Stripe fees).
Stripe may apply additional retry fees averaging around 0.7% if a student payment fails.
Fees can vary depending on the payment method used.
You can view detailed payout reports under Reports → Balance Summary in Stripe.
For current Stripe fee details, visit: https://stripe.com/en-es/pricing
You may pass fees onto students by adjusting your pricing to ensure your intended net amount.