This topic can certainly be viewed from many different angles, and there are likely always arguments for and against accepting credit cards for conferences. However, to answer the fundamental question, "Should we offer our attendees the option to pay by credit card?", it is helpful to understand what this entails. Assuming you are planning your conference using conference software, you will need an additional contract with an acquirer and a clearer to process credit card payments.
A brief explanation
- The acquirer verifies the accuracy of your attendees' credit card details.
- The clearer is responsible for the technical processing of the payment transaction.
These contracts will initially result in additional costs (specific figures follow below), but they will pay off later during the conference management process. Here is why: You have to regularly check your bank statements to see if payments have arrived and then manually enter them into your conference software. Credit card bookings, on the other hand, are automatically recorded in the system.
Beyond the aspects of cost and effort, it is important to remember that for some international attendees, it is more convenient to pay the conference fee by credit card, as it is considered a standard payment method in many countries.
To provide you with a general guideline on when it seems worthwhile to offer credit card payments, we analyzed 31 conferences.
Using credit cards depends on conference size
14 conference organizers did not offer credit card payments, while 17 conferences provided this option. A decisive factor here is the average number of attendees: organizers with high attendance numbers offer credit card payments more frequently than those with fewer attendees.
In our study, the average number of attendees for conferences without credit card payments was 120. In contrast, conferences that accepted credit cards had an average of 287 attendees.
This trend is likely due, on one hand, to the more international composition of attendees at larger conferences. On the other hand, the costs and administrative effort involved certainly play a role for larger events.
Other aspects of credit card payments
We see further advantages to paying by credit card:
- You don't have to wait for your conference fees.
- You don't have to send payment reminders for unpaid conference fees.
- You receive your money in time even if payment is made just a few days before the conference, allowing for a longer registration period.
The disadvantages of credit card payments
- You have to pay high costs to the acquirer and clearer: this amounts to about €500 in base fees plus approximately 3% of the transaction volume.
- When a credit card payment is canceled, you must expect high fees, also known as chargeback fees, ranging from €20 to €60. One reason for a chargeback could be credit card fraud, for example. Generally, however, chargebacks are very rare—in our experience, they occur with only 1 in 5,000 attendees.
You should probably avoid credit card payments if you charge low conference fees and expect few attendees—as a rule, credit card payments can become worthwhile starting at around 100 attendees. Conversely, credit card payments are a great help for large, international conferences with fees that can absorb a potential chargeback. By the way, you can also set up and automatically process cancellation fees in the conference software Converia. You can find more information on canceling bookings in the article "Security Cancellation Fee"
What are your decision criteria for choosing payment methods?
