Card and ACH payments for a US club

Quick answer

Cards are quick to set up and cost more per payment; ACH bank debit costs less, especially on large bills, and takes days to settle. A club that bills by the term or the season, with invoices of several hundred dollars, usually saves money by letting families pay by ACH, and keeps cards for small or last-minute payments. Gympillar supports both for US clubs, in US dollars, through Stripe.

An honest note up front: Gympillar’s payments run on Stripe Connect, and the card and bank debit rails have been exercised in Stripe’s test mode, not yet with live money, and not yet by a US club. Confirm the setup in a demo before you plan around it. Fee figures below are the defaults in our configuration, not a quote from Stripe.

On this page

• Card versus ACH for class fees
• What the fees look like
• Saved payment methods and automatic payments
• What changes for a club in the United States
• What is proven and what is not
• Questions clubs ask

Card versus ACH for class fees

A card payment is confirmed in seconds, the parent already has one in their wallet, and it is the right choice for a drop-in, a registration weekend or a family who pays on the way out the door. The cost is a percentage plus a fixed amount per payment, which adds up on a $600 season fee.

ACH debit pulls the money from the parent’s checking account. It is usually cheaper per payment, it suits large and recurring bills, and it does not expire the way a card does. The costs are that settlement takes days rather than seconds, the parent has to authorise the debit once, and a debit can fail after the fact, so a club needs to decide how it handles one that bounces.

In Gympillar a bank debit for a US club is Stripe’s US bank account (ACH) method, offered where Stripe has it switched on for your account. If it is not enabled, the Payments screen says where to switch it on and does not quietly hide the option.

What the fees look like

Stripe charges you for each payment. Separately, if you choose to pass the cost on to families, Gympillar computes a surcharge from a set of defaults you can overwrite. The defaults in the code are:

• Card: 2.9% plus 30 cents, with the surcharge limited to 2.4% of the payment, and only on credit cards. A debit or prepaid card is never surcharged.
• ACH bank debit: 0.8% with a ceiling of $5 per payment.

On a $600 season fee that cap is the whole point: a percentage-based card fee grows with the bill and the ACH fee stops at $5. Check Stripe’s own current pricing for your account before relying on those figures, and check your state’s and the card networks’ rules on surcharging before turning it on, since they differ by state. Passing costs on is off by default; it is a decision for the club.

On top of that, Gympillar’s own fee applies to every payment families make, as a small percentage with a per-payment ceiling that depends on your plan. The current figures are on the pricing page, and a US club is billed in USD at the same figures. We charge no US sales tax on the subscription.

Saved payment methods and automatic payments

A family can leave a card or a bank account on file, and the club can collect each invoice on its due date from it. The family agrees to this themselves, on their own screen: staff cannot put a household on automatic collection for them, and card or bank details never touch Gympillar’s servers. A club that wants it can make a saved method a condition of a place, and a family cannot decline it at registration; otherwise it is an offer.

One detail matters for a bank debit: the family is told before they are debited, with a notice period the club sets. If a collection fails, the household is emailed, a bank debit that is still processing is not retried, and a bill under an instalment plan is not chased as if it were late. Term or monthly pricing covers how those choices fit together.

What changes for a club in the United States

The country is asked when a club is set up and decides several things at once: the currency is USD, bank debit is ACH rather than the Canadian pre-authorized debit, and addresses ask for a state and ZIP code, with a time zone proposed from the state. A family across the border can still register, because the forms accept either list. Once money has moved (a Stripe account, a subscription or an invoice exists) the country is fixed, because Stripe fixes it for the account.

Interac e-Transfer is Canadian, and a US club never sees it: the e-Transfer address reads as empty outside Canada, and our own bills to a US club leave that rail out. If you are weighing it for a Canadian location, how e-Transfer reconciliation works explains what it can and cannot do.

What is proven and what is not

The payments rail is built on Stripe Connect with direct charges, so a family’s payment goes to your own Stripe account and Gympillar’s fee is taken from it. In Stripe’s test mode, card payments, the fee, a bank debit and its microdeposit verification have been walked end to end on a Canadian connected account. Production moved to live keys in August 2026, but no real club payment has yet been taken through it, and the US bank account (ACH) method specifically has not been run by a US club. Anyone telling you this is a proven, high-volume rail would be overstating it. What you can reasonably expect today is a working build, a clear picture of what is left to confirm, and a demo where you can see it.

That is also why it is worth reading about how a club moves off its current tools: moving from spreadsheets, class registration and waitlists and the other guides are written so you can start without committing to any one payment method.