Taking payments online for the first time
Moving from cash and e-transfers to card payments: what it really costs, what it saves, and the order to set it up so nobody's first bill goes wrong.
Jun 30, 2026 · 5 min read
Plenty of businesses run on cash, cheques and e-transfers for years, and run well. The reason to move isn't to look modern. It's that collecting by hand stops working at a certain size, and the evenings it eats don't come back.
If you've reached the point where the first of the month means an hour with your bank's app open beside a spreadsheet, this is for you.
What it costs
There are two parts to look at, and one to watch for.
The card processor's fee. A percentage plus a few cents on every payment. Stripe's, in Canada and the US, is 2.9% + 30¢.
Your software's share, if it takes one. Some booking software adds its own percentage on top of the processor's. Ask about it specifically. It's the difference between a reasonable cost and an expensive one.
Failed payments. These cost time, not money, as long as retries and reminders happen on their own.
Here's what that looks like on one bill. Say monthly tuition is $85, paid by card:
| Each month | |
|---|---|
| Stripe's fee (2.9% + 30¢) | $2.77 |
| A 0.2% software fee | $0.17 |
| What you keep | $82.06 |
Now multiply. With 120 families at $85, that's $10,200 a month by card, and about $350 a month in fees. That's real money, and you should look at it squarely rather than let anyone tell you it's nothing.
Then set it against what you spend now: the hours matching e-transfers to names, the reminders, the family who's two months behind because nobody wanted to bring it up at pick-up. If you value your evenings at all, the fees usually cost less than the work, and they start costing less almost at once above a hundred families.
What it actually saves
Matching. A card payment arrives against a family and a bill. An e-transfer arrives as "J SMITH" with a memo that says "dance", and three Smiths have a child with you.
Late payment. Most of it is friction, not refusal. When paying takes one tap on a phone, most of the lateness disappears.
The awkwardness. Nobody has to hand you an envelope at the door, or be reminded in front of other parents.
Cash. The counting, the trip to the bank, the float, and the $20 you can never account for.
Set it up in this order
Don't switch everyone on the same day. Do it in four steps, over a term or two, and you'll have solved the problems before they reach most people.
1. Pay yourself first. Before you tell a single family anything, take one real payment on your own card, a small amount. Watch what arrives in your bank, when, and less what. The first payout can take longer than the ones after it, so this is the time to find out.
2. New families only. From now on, anyone who registers pays by card when they sign up. No announcement, no migration, and you learn how it fails on a small group who never knew another way.
3. Volunteers. Tell your existing families they can switch if they'd like. Plenty will, because it's easier for them too. A line in your next email is enough:
You can now pay by card from your phone. If you'd like to, there's nothing to fill in: your next bill will have a button to pay it. If you'd rather keep paying by e-transfer, that's fine too.
4. Everyone else, at the start of a term. Give a month's notice, and keep a route for the handful who really can't pay by card. That isn't a failure of the plan; it's part of it.
Decide these before you start
A saved card, or a link each time? A card saved at registration and charged when the bill is due is where the time savings are. Sending a link to pay each bill is a smaller step, and keeps most of the chasing.
Who pays the fee? Usually you, built into the price. On an $85 tuition, about $3 covers it. Adding a card surcharge is restricted in some provinces and states and by the card networks' own rules, it annoys everyone, and it undoes the goodwill of making payment easier. If you're thinking of it, check the rules where you are first.
What happens when a card is declined? A retry the next day, then a friendly email, then a person. Decide it before your first decline, not during it.
What you'll do for the exceptions. A grandparent who pays by cheque, a family on a payment arrangement. Write down how those work, so whoever's at the desk knows.
The mistakes that make it harder than it is
Switching everyone at once, mid-term, with one email. The questions arrive all in the same week, and so do the declined cards.
Never trying a refund. Refunds behave differently from payments: back to the card takes days, not seconds. The first time you need one shouldn't be the first time you try it. When to refund and when to give credit instead is in refund or credit.
Never paying as a parent would. Do it yourself, on your phone, from the link a family gets. If it takes more than a minute, that's what your families are about to do every month.
Not saying what their statement will show. An unfamiliar name on a bank statement brings questions, and now and then a disputed charge. Tell families what it will say.
When not to bother
With 30 students and a spreadsheet that works, this is optional, and the money may do more somewhere else.
But if you're spending an evening a month matching payments, the fees are cheaper than the evening.
In Caletan, card payments go through Stripe, into a Stripe account in your business's own name, and from there to your bank every few days (how it's set up). Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ goes to Stripe. On Pay as you go, Caletan's service fee is 0.2% of each card payment, with nothing a month; Pro is $100 a month with no service fee; and the families you still collect from yourself stay on the same bills, marked paid. It's all on our pricing.
