Just received email from Stripe. They will hold the CC fee on refunds even for grandfathered accounts

I guess Stripe has followed suit of others- no refund of CC fees on refunds.

Hmm. So they're un-grandfathering all of the grandfathered accounts, basically?

Most CC processors do have a model where they return fees on refunds if you're doing "interchange plus pricing". They may not return fees on refunds on a flat rate plan like Stripe's default plan, but even Stripe has plans that do return fees on refunds (of course, for Stripe, ya gotta be pushing a good chunk of volume for them to negotiate a custom plan with you).

I know Lynnbrook Group has an interchange plus plan where they'll return fees on refunds, so that might be worth checking into -- make sure to mention the refunds when you're getting the plan set up. They have a monthly fee, but they also have a lower rate so it'll end up cheaper overall if you're doing mid 5 figures in volume.

Yes, looks like it Chris. I already talked to Caleb from Lynnbrook. I guess it was good while it lasted. Here is the email.

Hello,

We'd like to let you know that we're making some updates to your Stripe fees.

In 2017, we updated our fee handling for refunds and international payments to account for changes in our underlying costs. Because you were an early user of Stripe, your fees did not change at the time. Beginning March 6, 2020, we’ll be updating your Stripe fees to bring them in line with our current pricing.

What changes you’ll see

Refunds: We’ll no longer return Stripe’s fees from the original transaction when you refund a customer.

International payments: All payments from non-US cards will be charged an additional 1% fee.

Currency conversion: Foreign exchange fees on your account will be lowered from 2% to 1% for any payment that requires currency conversion.

All other pricing remains unchanged. You can always find our current pricing and fee details on our pricing page, and you can read more in the docs about refunds and currency conversion.

Best,
The Stripe team

So how do you handle this with guests? Are you passing the fees on to them? Just got a booking with VRBO API that cancelled a day later. Incurred a $65 fee from Stripe.

@Lauren: Everyone does it different. Some due impose a cancellation flat fee (call it 100 bucks) or pass the Stripe fee on to the guest.