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Cord Payments fees

How much Cord charges to process a payment, in which currencies it applies, and the rules for refunds and disputes.

What it is

The Cord Payments fee is the per-transaction fee Cord deducts from each online payment processed through your payments account. It already includes the cost of processing a local payment. The processor separately deducts its surcharges for international cards, currency conversion and disputes from your payments account: see Processor surcharges. It’s separate from your Cord subscription: it applies the same on every plan.

Fee by currency

The fee depends on the currency the payment is collected in and on your business’s country, not on the plan. Each currency’s table belongs to its country: the MXN table applies to businesses in Mexico, and a business in another country that collects in pesos pays no platform fee on that payment.

Payment currency Cord platform fee today
MXN (Mexican pesos) Yes, for businesses in Mexico: the per-method table below.
USD (US dollars) Doesn’t apply.
EUR (euros) Doesn’t apply.
GBP (pounds sterling) Doesn’t apply.
CAD (Canadian dollars) Doesn’t apply.
BRL (Brazilian reais) Doesn’t apply.

In currencies without a platform fee you pay your payments account’s processing cost, the processor’s surcharges and your Cord subscription. The Fee by method table in Settings › Payments › Fees tells you so, with your account’s currency. If a fee is ever activated in another currency, it will be published here and you’ll have to accept it before it applies.

Payments through Mercado Pago carry no Cord fee: you pay your Mercado Pago account’s fee, under your terms with them. Manual transfer carries no fee from anyone.

Fee table in MXN

Method Total fee Example on a $10,000.00 MXN payment
Card (credit/debit) 4% + $3.00 MXN + VAT $467.48 MXN
SPEI (automatic transfer) 1% + $7.00 MXN + VAT, with a maximum of $588.12 MXN per payment up to $166,666.67 MXN; on larger payments, $7.00 MXN + 0.3% of the payment + VAT $124.12 MXN
Retainers (monthly recurring card charge) 4% + $3.00 MXN + VAT on each monthly charge $467.48 MXN per charge
Manual transfer $0.00 MXN: doesn’t go through Cord Payments $0.00 MXN
Settings › Payments › Fees before accepting the current version: the fee by method (Card 4% + $3.00 MXN + tax, Automatic SPEI transfer 1% + $7.00 MXN + tax with a maximum of $588.12 MXN per payment and 0.3% of the payment as Cord's part on payments over $166,666.67 MXN, Card retainers 4% + $3.00 MXN + tax, Mercado Pago with no Cord fee and the transfer to your account with no fee), the acceptance box checked and the Activate current fee button.

VAT (16%, Mexico’s IVA) is calculated on the fee (the percentage component plus the fixed one), never on the full payment amount. By card: (4% of $10,000.00 MXN + $3.00 MXN) × 1.16 = $467.48 MXN. By SPEI: (1% of $10,000.00 MXN + $7.00 MXN) × 1.16 = $124.12 MXN.

Why SPEI has a cap and card doesn’t

Processing a SPEI costs practically the same regardless of the amount. That’s why the percentage part of the SPEI fee (the 1%) is capped at $500.00 MXN before VAT, reached on a $50,000.00 MXN payment. From there and up to a $166,666.67 MXN payment, a SPEI’s total fee stays at $588.12 MXN: ($500.00 MXN + $7.00 MXN) × 1.16.

On payments over $166,666.67 MXN, the percentage part is 0.3% of the payment, which is already above that cap: the total fee is $7.00 MXN plus 0.3% of the payment, plus VAT. On a $500,000.00 MXN payment: ($1,500.00 MXN + $7.00 MXN) × 1.16 = $1,748.12 MXN.

Payment amount Total card fee Total SPEI fee
$50,000.00 MXN $2,323.48 MXN (4.65%) $588.12 MXN (1.18% effective)
$100,000.00 MXN $4,643.48 MXN (4.64%) $588.12 MXN (0.59% effective)
$166,666.67 MXN $7,736.82 MXN (4.64%) $588.12 MXN (0.35% effective)
$500,000.00 MXN $23,203.48 MXN (4.64%) $1,748.12 MXN (0.35% effective)

For large payments in pesos, SPEI is by far the cheapest online method.

Split payments

Each part of a quote is a separate transaction: the deposit and the balance, each milestone of a milestone plan, each installment, and each partial payment of an invoice carries its own fee, calculated with the same table.

Retainers

A retainer is always charged by card, because it’s the only way for the charge to go out on its own every month. The fee is the same as a regular card payment, applied to each monthly charge.

How your fee schedule is activated

Cord’s fee doesn’t apply until you explicitly accept the current version of the schedule:

  1. Connect your payments account. See Connect your account.
  2. Open Settings › Payments › Fees with the Payment settings permission. If there’s a version you haven’t accepted, the Cord Payments fee section shows the notice “The current version isn’t accepted yet. Until you accept it, Cord won’t add its fee”. Settings › Payments › Account also lets you know, with the Review fee link.
  3. Review the fees that apply to you in the Fee by method table, which is always visible, also after you accept. If your account collects in a currency without a platform fee, each method says No Cord fee and a notice confirms it, instead of showing the Mexican table.
  4. Check the box accepting the Cord Payments fee terms.
  5. Click Activate current fee and confirm your identity when Cord asks.

The acceptance is recorded in the audit log with the terms version, date, and IP address. Once the current version is accepted, the section says You accepted the [date] version on [date], with the See terms link. If we change the schedule, the change is not retroactive: the checkbox and the button appear again and the new version doesn’t apply until you accept it.

Until you accept, there's no fee

A connected account that hasn’t accepted the current version keeps collecting with its active methods, and Cord doesn’t add its fee to those payments. This protects accounts that were collecting before this schedule existed: nobody changes your fee without your confirmation. Accepting the fee also turns on the quote payment screen where your customer first chooses how to pay, by card or by bank transfer: SPEI in Mexico or bank transfer with a reference in EUR, GBP, or USD, which on quotes only appears on that screen.

The full legal text is in the Payments terms, section 3.

Processor surcharges

On top of the fee, the payment processor deducts some surcharges directly from your payments account. Cord doesn’t charge or keep them, and they aren’t in the table above. These are the processor’s public figures as of October 19, 2026 and they may change; Settings › Payments › Fees shows them for your account’s country.

Your account’s country International card Currency conversion Each dispute received
Mexico +0.5% +2% MXN 150.00
United States +1.5% +1% USD 15.00
Canada +0.8% +2% CAD 15.00
United Kingdom 3.15% + £0.20 per payment +2% £20.00
Spain, Germany and France 3.15% + €0.25 per payment +2% €20.00

Currency conversion applies when your customer pays in a currency other than your payments account’s. The quote and invoice editor warns you in the Terms step when you choose another currency and accept cards. In the United Kingdom and the euro area, the processor publishes the full rate for an international card, not a surcharge on top of the local one.

What happens to the fee if you refund

If you return money to a customer from Cord (a quote’s payment in Revenue › Payments or an invoice’s online payment from its detail page; see Refunds), the refunded amount is deducted from your net revenue, but the original payment’s fee isn’t returned: it’s a cost incurred when the payment was processed.

What happens to the fee in a dispute

If a customer disputes the charge with their bank (chargeback), the amount is held while it’s resolved. If you lose the dispute, that money leaves your balance along with a processor dispute fee, and Cord’s original fee isn’t returned either. See Disputes and chargebacks.

Advantages of collecting with Cord Payments

  1. Automatic reconciliation. Each payment is tied to its quote or invoice and the status changes to paid as soon as it’s confirmed.
  2. The money is yours, straight to your account. Cord doesn’t hold your funds or act as a middleman for the money: you’re the merchant of record of every payment.
  3. Checkout with your branding. Your customer pays inside the document, with your name and colors.
  4. Split payments without double work. Deposit and balance, milestone plans, installments, partial payments, and retainers all come from the same link.

Before you activate

  1. Payout timing. Money doesn’t reach your bank instantly: it first lands in your payments account balance and is paid out at the frequency you choose.
  2. Identity verification. To activate Cord Payments you go through a regulatory verification of the business and the people who control it. See Connect your account.
  3. Chargebacks. If a customer disputes a card charge, the business that collected is responsible. Cord gives you the tools to defend yourself with evidence.

Tip: on very large quotes in pesos, manual transfer is still the no-cost option, at the price of losing automatic reconciliation and verifying each deposit by hand.

Limits

  • The platform fee only applies to MXN payments today.
  • The fee isn’t returned on refunds or disputes.
  • The fee can’t be negotiated per account from the app.

Common problems

I don’t see the checkbox to accept the fee. You already accepted the current version (the Cord Payments fee section says when), your payments account isn’t connected yet (the section says you can accept it once you connect it), or you don’t have the Payment settings permission.

My USD payment shows no Cord fee. That’s expected: there’s no platform fee outside MXN today.

Net deposited doesn’t match what I collected. Check the Where every peso goes widget on the payments dashboard: it separates fees, refunds, and disputes.