Merchant Account Fees

For some local and state races, the laws require you to have your own merchant account. Below is the fee structure for merchant accounts with ActBlue.

With a Vantiv Worldpay merchant account, there are no setup fees and no monthly maintenance fees–only transaction fees. The amount can vary depending on the average donation size, the different credit card types used by your donors, and your committee’s total monthly volume, but, in general, the total of all ActBlue and Vantiv Worldpay fees should average out to roughly 3.95% of your gross volume.

Vantiv Worldpay Fees

A full schedule of these fees will be included with Vantiv Worldpay’s Merchant Payment Processing Agreement.

Vantiv Worldpay fees are billed monthly, and the Vantiv Worldpay fee total for each calendar month will settle on the 8th day of the following calendar month. For example, if  you begin processing donations on March 20th, the total amount of Vantiv Worldpay fees on donations processed from March 20th-31st will be billed in your April 8th settlement.If the 8th falls on a weekend or holiday, the fees will be billed on the next business day after the 8th.

If you have donations that settle on the same day that the fees are billed, Vantiv Worldpay will combine the settlements into a single transfer. For example, if you have $100 in donations that settle on July 8th, and the Vantiv Worldpay fees for June total -$25, you will receive a single transfer of $75 in your bank account.

Vantiv Worldpay fees will not appear in your reporting center on the ActBlue website. For information about the reports that detail these fees, please refer to the Reconciliation section.

*NOTE: Monthly billing of Vantiv Worldpay fees applies to merchant accounts established November 2016 or later – Vantiv Worldpay fees for merchant accounts established prior to that time are billed daily. If your merchant account was established prior to November 2016 and you would like to activate monthly billing (which we absolutely recommend!), please submit this form.

Worldpay Fees Following an Election:

If your race was unsuccessful, and your campaign used a merchant account: Please keep in mind that the ActBlue service fee and merchant account fees for your monthly donations are billed during the following calendar month, meaning that the transaction fees for your final donation activity will be assessed by the 12th of the calendar month after the date the last donation is received. Additionally, a $0.50 billing fee will be assessed for the final transaction fee payment. That $0.50 billing fee will be assessed the month after the final transaction fees are billed. This means that the campaign bank account should remain open and funded until the 12th of the second calendar month following your final donation (e.g. if your final donation was processed in November, your bank account should remain open until January 12th).

ActBlue Fees

The ActBlue service fee is billed to the campaign’s bank account the first weekday of each month, for the aggregate amount of the ActBlue service fee for all donations processed during the previous month.