Lorum supports two configurations for how transaction fees are collected:

1. From the transaction account (default)
2. From the primary account

If preferred, a member of the Lorum team can configure your organisation to collect fees from the primary account.

Fees collected from the transaction account (Default)

This is the default configuration for all organisations.

Outbound payments

The transaction fee is added to the instructed amount and debited from the same account.

Example: If a customer sends a payment of 100.00 and the fee is 5.00, a total of 105.00 is debited from the customer’s account.

Inbound payments

The transaction fee is deducted from the received amount before crediting the customer’s account.

Example: If 100.00 is received and the fee is 5.00, the customer receives a net credit of 95.00.

Fees collected from the primary account

When an organisation is configured to collect fees from the primary account, fees are separated from the transaction flow and charged independently.

Outbound payments

• The instructed amount is debited from the customer's account.
• The transaction fee is debited separately from the organisation's primary account.
• If the primary account has an insufficient balance to cover the fee, the transaction will fail with the error: fee account has insufficient balance to make this payment.

Example: A customer sends a payment of 100.00, and the fee is 5.00:

• 100.00 is debited from the customer’s account.
• 5.00 is debited from the organisation’s primary account.

Inbound payments

• The full amount received is credited to the customer's account.
• The transaction fee is debited separately from the organisation's primary account.
• If the primary account has an insufficient balance to cover the fee, the system falls back to deducting the fee from the received amount before crediting the customer.

Example: An inbound payment of 100.00 is received, and the fee is 5.00:

• 100.00 is credited to the customer’s account.
• 5.00 is debited from the organisation’s primary account.

If the primary account has insufficient balance:

• 95.00 is credited to the customer’s account.
• 5.00 is deducted directly from the received amount.

Identifying the primary account

1. In the portal, the primary account is marked with a primary label.
2. In the API, the primary account is identified by "account_type": "primary".

Fee debit transactions

When fees are collected from the primary account, they are recorded as separate transactions with the type fee_debit. These transactions appear in the transaction views in the portal and via the GET /transactions API API.

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This transaction record's type field (fee_debit) is distinct from the fee_debited webhook event, which notifies you when this transaction occurs. See Webhook Catalogue and Common Types & Definitions for the related FeeSourceAccount type.