From charging a blended rate to IC++: pass network costs to your connected accounts

Summary

Platforms using blended payment rates absorb interchange variance, which can reduce margins as card mix shifts toward premium rewards, corporate, and other high-interchange cards. Network cost passthrough, also called IC++, lets eligible Connect platforms pass interchange, scheme fees, and applicable adjustments to connected accounts at cost while keeping Stripe fees and platform markup separate. Eligibility requires IC+ pricing, platform-controlled pricing, enabled transfers, an appropriate Merchant of Record fund flow, and eligible geographies; passthrough can then be enabled in the Dashboard or through the API. The rollout also requires lower application fees, new network-cost reporting, and a pilot with clear communication before broader deployment.

Takeaways

1. 1

   IC++ requires IC+ pricing, platform-controlled pricing, an enabled transfers capability, an appropriate Merchant of Record fund flow, and eligible geographies.

2. 2

   Network costs are first charged to the platform and then recovered from the connected account through a platform_fee_transfer balance transaction; recovery can make an account negative and pause payouts.

3. 3

   Platforms should create separate IC++ pricing rules, provide plan-level and transaction-level network-cost reports, and begin with a small pilot cohort after communicating the change.