Between a fan tapping Pay and the money reaching your bank there is a short chain of companies, each taking a defined cut or none, and each with rules that matter on the day a refund or a dispute lands. This guide follows one ticket payment through that chain on tickts, sets out what each option costs, and explains the choices that are actually yours to make.
What happens when someone pays by card
- Authorisation. The card network asks the buyer's bank whether the money is there. This is the moment a card can be declined. On tickts the checkout is Stripe's, so card details never touch tickts or you.
- Capture. The approved amount is taken. For a normal ticket this happens immediately; for a payment plan only the deposit is captured now.
- Settlement. Stripe pays the money into your own Stripe balance. tickts is not in that path and does not hold it.
- Payout. Your balance pays out to your bank on your Stripe schedule. A new UK account typically starts on a seven-day rolling delay, which shortens as the account builds a history.
What each way of paying costs
| Method | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Card through Stripe | 1.5% + 20p per transaction on a UK card | The default. Apple Pay and Google Pay are cards. |
| Pay by Bank through Stripe | Roughly a third of the card fee | Open banking; no chargebacks; GBP £0.50 to £10,000; not on deposit bookings |
| PayPal | 2.9% + 30p per transaction | Settles to your PayPal account; some Stripe-only features not offered |
| Buy now, pay later (Klarna, Clearpay) | Higher than card, from your Stripe balance | You are paid in full up front; needs activation on your Stripe account |
| Reserve and pay you directly | Nothing | No card taken; ticket issued when you mark the order paid |
| Box office cash | Nothing | Recorded, not processed |
tickts itself charges no booking fee to the buyer and no commission to you on any of them.
Absorb or pass on: your one real decision
Every event has a fee mode. Absorb means the card fee comes out of your ticket price: a £10 ticket costs the buyer £10.00 and you receive £9.65. Pass on means the buyer pays it at checkout, shown as its own line before they press Pay: the same £10 ticket costs the buyer £10.36 and you receive £10.00 exactly. Absorb is the default and the honest-looking one; pass on is the right choice when the price is a number you have promised to someone else, a charity's £10 for example. The mode locks after your first sale on that event.
The card fee is 1.5% of whatever the buyer pays plus 20p. Absorbed, the buyer pays £10.00, so the fee is 35p. Passed on, the buyer pays £10.36, so 1.5% is taken of £10.36, and the extra penny is the fee on the fee. Either way the fee is the processor's, not tickts'; nothing else is taken.
Pay by Bank, the one worth switching on
Pay by Bank lets a buyer pay straight from their bank account, approving the payment in their own banking app. It settles into your Stripe account like a card sale but costs about a third as much, and there are no chargebacks because the buyer authorised it themselves. It is a capability on your own Stripe account: turn it on at dashboard.stripe.com under payment methods, and tickts offers it beside card at checkout automatically for GBP payments between £0.50 and £10,000. It is at its best on donations, season tickets, hospitality and anything over about £50, where the saving is real and buyers do not mind the extra step.
Refunds run backwards along the same chain
A refund from the order goes through Stripe to the buyer's card, usually landing in five to ten working days, and comes out of your Stripe balance. If your takings have already paid out, the refund fails until new sales arrive or you top the balance up; tickts tells you so rather than pretending. Pay by Bank refunds work the same way. PayPal refunds go back through PayPal, and a refund you make inside PayPal itself is picked up and shown against the order.
Disputes
A chargeback is a buyer asking their bank to reverse a card payment. Because the charge sits on your Stripe account, it is yours to answer, and the order page on tickts carries what a good answer needs: the confirmation email, the ticket, and the scan record if they attended. Disputes are rare on tickets sold at a plain price with no surprise fees. Pay by Bank has none at all.
Card readers at the door
A Stripe card reader, connected in the Box Office, charges the customer's card for a walk-up sale and pays your Stripe account like every other sale. Stripe's in-person rate applies, which is lower than the online card rate, and tickts adds nothing.
Choosing between Stripe and PayPal
Stripe is cheaper per transaction and carries every feature, including payment plans, gift cards and memberships. PayPal suits an organisation that already lives in PayPal and wants the money there, and it can run alongside Stripe so the buyer chooses. On a pass-on event the buyer sees both totals before choosing. Either way, connect one before you publish a paid event; free events need neither.
