Cheddar Up fees come in two layers: a monthly subscription that ranges from $0 to $48, and a per-transaction processing fee taken from every payment. On the free Basic plan, card transactions cost 3.95% plus $0.95 each. On the paid Pro and Team plans, that drops to 3.59% plus $0.59, and eCheck (ACH) payments unlock at much lower rates. Organizers can either absorb these fees or pass them to payers at checkout.
Subscription Plan Costs
Three tiers are available. Each unlocks different features and, more importantly for cost, a different processing rate.
- Basic is free forever. You get unlimited collection pages, but each page is capped at five items and one form. Only the account owner can manage collections, and eCheck is not offered.
- Pro runs $20 per month or $180 per year. It removes the item cap and adds recurring payments, discount codes, shipping, custom forms, eSignatures, and file uploads. eCheck becomes available.
- Team runs $48 per month or $420 per year. It adds multiple managers, a branded group website, ticketing, waitlists, and advanced reporting. Verified 501(c)(3) organizations can display a nonprofit badge and send automatic tax-deductible receipts.
Paying annually saves roughly three months of fees on Pro and over $150 on Team compared with monthly billing.1Cheddar Up. Select a Subscription Plan There are no trial periods for the paid tiers, and you can cancel anytime.2Cheddar Up. Cheddar Up Pricing
Per-Transaction Processing Fees
Every payment through Cheddar Up carries a processing fee on top of the subscription. The rate depends on your plan and the payment method.
Credit and Debit Card Rates
Basic charges 3.95% plus $0.95 per card transaction. Pro and Team both charge 3.59% plus $0.59.3Cheddar Up. About Fees In practical terms, a $100 card payment costs $4.90 in fees on Basic and $4.18 on Pro or Team. Small on one payment, meaningful across a couple hundred families.
eCheck (ACH) Rates
eCheck is not offered on Basic. On Pro, eChecks cost 1.59% of the payment with a $1 minimum. On Team, eChecks are a flat $0.95 no matter the amount.3Cheddar Up. About Fees The gap widens with size. A $500 payment by card on Pro costs $18.54; the same payment by eCheck costs $7.95 on Pro or $0.95 on Team. If most of your collections are large, eCheck savings can justify a higher plan tier on their own.
Who Pays the Fee: Organizer or Payer
By default, Cheddar Up passes the transaction fee to the payer as a separate line item at checkout, so a $50 collection actually costs the payer $50 plus the processing charge. Organizers can change that. You can absorb all fees yourself, keep passing them through, let payers choose, or absorb only the eCheck portion while passing card fees through.4Cheddar Up. About Fees – Section: Convenience Fees
When you absorb the fee, the platform deducts it before depositing the balance. A $50 card payment at the Pro rate nets you $48.21 instead of $50. Groups running on tight event budgets often pass fees through so every dollar goes to the purpose; PTOs and sports clubs sometimes absorb them to avoid asking families for an extra charge.
One legal boundary to keep in mind. A handful of states restrict or prohibit surcharges on credit card transactions. Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Kansas have broad bans, while California, Colorado, and Maine impose specific conditions. The fee-passing feature works the same everywhere technically, but whether it’s permissible in your state is a separate question worth checking before you switch it on.
Card Reader for In-Person Payments
For events like bake sales, registration days, and merchandise booths, Cheddar Up sells a Bluetooth card reader for $79, with an optional charging dock for $19.5Cheddar Up. Purchase a Card Reader The reader connects to the Cheddar Up mobile app and accepts chip-enabled EMV cards. Cheddar Up does not publish a separate in-person processing rate on its fees page.
Refunds and the 10-Day Fee Window
You can issue refunds through the platform anytime. What changes is whether you get the processing fee back. Refund within 10 days of the original payment and Cheddar Up refunds the processing fees as well. After that 10-day window, you can still refund the payer in full, but the platform keeps its transaction fees.6Cheddar Up. Cheddar Up Refund Policy
This is where groups collecting for events with uncertain attendance lose money. If three families cancel a field trip two months after paying, each refund costs the organizer the full processing fee that was originally charged. On a $75 Pro-rate payment, that’s about $3.28 gone per refund. A clear cancellation deadline on the collection page helps.
Withdrawal Speed and Instant Transfer Fees
Cheddar Up offers two withdrawal speeds to your linked bank account. Standard withdrawals land within one to three business days. Instant transfers arrive in as little as 20 minutes for an additional fee, and the exact amount is displayed before you confirm the withdrawal.7Cheddar Up. Withdrawals and Transfers For most groups the standard timeline is fine; instant makes sense when a vendor needs paying the day of an event.
Sales Tax on Merchandise
If a collection page sells physical goods, sales tax may apply. Cheddar Up includes a tax setting that lets you add a rate to items at checkout, but it does not calculate the correct rate for your jurisdiction.8Cheddar Up. Features for Sellers You enter the percentage yourself, so you need to know your local and state rate first. Nonprofit status does not automatically exempt an organization from collecting sales tax, and the rules vary by state.
1099-K Reporting
Cheddar Up is classified as a third-party settlement organization, so it may need to file Form 1099-K with the IRS for organizers who cross certain thresholds. Under current rules, a 1099-K is required when an organizer receives more than $20,000 in gross payments across more than 200 transactions in a calendar year. Both conditions must be met.9Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues FAQs on Form 1099-K Threshold Under the One, Big Beautiful Bill
The threshold was reinstated by the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reverted the reporting rules to their pre-2022 levels. Even without a 1099-K, the IRS states that all income from selling goods or services must be reported.10Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Form 1099-K Groups collecting dues or donations rather than selling goods generally aren’t receiving taxable income to the organizer, but the platform’s reporting dashboard is worth using to keep that distinction clean on paper.