A Whatnot charge on your bank or credit card statement is a purchase made through Whatnot, a livestream shopping app where users bid on collectibles, trading cards, fashion, and similar items in real-time auctions. If you’re a seller trying to understand what Whatnot charges you, the main costs are an 8% commission on the sale price and a payment processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 on the total order value.
What a Whatnot Charge Looks Like on Your Statement
Whatnot typically appears on statements as “WHATNOT” or “WHATNOT PENROSE DOCK IRL.” Penrose Dock is the company’s registered address in Ireland. The amount reflects the full checkout total for something you bought: the winning bid, shipping, and any sales tax.
Before calling your bank, open the Whatnot app or website and check your purchase history. Someone with access to your account or payment method may have bought something, or you may have won an auction you forgot about. Livestream bidding moves fast, and bids placed in the moment are easy to lose track of. If the purchase genuinely isn’t yours, contact Whatnot support before filing a chargeback with your bank. Chargebacks complicate resolution on both sides.
Seller Commission Rates
Whatnot’s commission is calculated on the item’s final sale price only. Shipping and tax are excluded from that calculation. On a $20 winning bid, the commission comes off the $20. For “Buy It Now” listings, it applies to the accepted price.1Whatnot. Whatnot Seller Fees
The Standard 8% Rate
Most categories carry an 8% commission. For U.S., Canadian, and Australian sellers, Comics, TCG, Sports Singles, and Toys & Hobbies also sit at 8%, but with a tiered structure: the commission applies to the first $1,500 of the sale price, and anything above that carries a 0% rate. Whatnot lists this tiered arrangement as a limited-time promotion, so it can change.1Whatnot. Whatnot Seller Fees
Reduced Rate for Coins and Money
Coins, bullion, and paper currency get a 4% commission on the first $1,500 of the sale price, with 0% above that threshold. The reduced rate applies automatically when the item is listed under the correct category, so double-check your listing category before going live.2Whatnot. Reduced Commission on Coins and Money
Sellers Outside North America and Australia
EU and UK sellers pay a different commission (4% to 6.67% plus VAT depending on category) and a different processing rate (2.42% plus €0.25 or £0.25). If you sell internationally, verify the current rate on Whatnot’s seller fees page, since these percentages have changed multiple times.1Whatnot. Whatnot Seller Fees
Payment Processing Fee
Every transaction also carries a processing fee to move money between buyer and seller. For U.S., Canadian, and Australian sellers, that fee is 2.9% of the total order value plus a flat $0.30 per transaction.1Whatnot. Whatnot Seller Fees
The commission and the processing fee are calculated on different amounts, which trips sellers up. The commission uses the sale price. The processing fee uses the total order value, meaning sale price plus shipping paid by the buyer plus any sales tax or VAT collected at checkout. A $50 item with $10 shipping and $5 in tax carries a processing fee on the full $65, not on $50.1Whatnot. Whatnot Seller Fees
The flat $0.30 stings hardest on cheap items. On a $5 card, $0.30 alone is 6% of the sale price before any percentage-based fee applies. Sellers who move lots of low-priced items often bundle them into a single lot to shrink the per-transaction hit relative to revenue.
Optional Shipping Protection
Whatnot offers optional shipping protection that works like insurance for lost or damaged packages. Domestic U.S. shipments cost 1% of the item value plus the shipping cost; international shipments from the U.S. cost 1.5%. Both cap coverage at $10,000 per package.3Whatnot Help Center. Protect Your Shipments
USPS and UPS already include up to $100 of lost-package coverage, so the added protection mostly matters above that value. For anything above the $10,000 cap, Whatnot suggests splitting the order into multiple shipments under $10,000 or buying third-party insurance and sending proof to support.3Whatnot Help Center. Protect Your Shipments
Buyers Pay No Platform Fee
Whatnot does not charge buyers a platform fee, buyer’s premium, or service surcharge at checkout. What you bid is what you pay, plus the seller’s shipping and any sales tax. That differs from traditional auction houses, which commonly add a buyer’s premium of 15% to 25% on top of the hammer price. If your Whatnot charge looks higher than your winning bid, the extra is shipping and tax.
How Payouts, Refunds, and Taxes Affect Your Take-Home
Whatnot deducts all fees automatically before earnings hit your balance. You never get a separate invoice; the order receipt breaks down commission, processing fee, and net earnings for each transaction.1Whatnot. Whatnot Seller Fees Payouts run through Stripe, and Stripe offers an instant payout option for a 1.5% fee in the U.S. and Australia. Standard bank transfers carry no additional fee.4Whatnot Help Center. Set Up and Start a Payout
Refunds usually come as a “billback,” meaning Whatnot deducts the refunded amount from your balance. If a buyer contacts you about a problem and you don’t respond within two business days, the buyer can escalate and Whatnot may issue the refund and bill it back to you without further input.5Whatnot Help Center. Seller Provided Support for Sellers Responding quickly is the easiest way to avoid losing money on a dispute you might have resolved directly.
On the tax side, Whatnot collects and remits sales tax on behalf of sellers in states where it’s legally required, and in some states it also charges tax on its own commissions and fees, which is deducted from your earnings.6Whatnot. Where Whatnot Is Obligated to Charge Tax on Our Commissions and Fees For income taxes, Whatnot is a third-party settlement organization and may send you a Form 1099-K reporting gross sales. Current IRS rules require 1099-K reporting when gross payments exceed $20,000 and you have more than 200 transactions in a calendar year, though Congress passed a law lowering that threshold to $600 and the IRS has been phasing in the change gradually.7Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Form 1099-K The IRS expects you to report all income whether or not you receive a 1099-K, and you may have separate state sales tax registration requirements that Whatnot doesn’t handle for you.8Whatnot Help Center. U.S. Sales Tax Collection on Whatnot
What a $100 Sale Actually Nets
Fees in isolation don’t always land. Here’s a $100 item sold with $10 shipping to a buyer in a state with 7% sales tax:
- Sale price: $100.00
- Commission (8% of $100): −$8.00
- Total order value ($100 + $10 shipping + $7.70 tax): $117.70
- Payment processing (2.9% of $117.70 + $0.30): −$3.71
- Net earnings before shipping protection: about $98.29
The $10 in shipping passes through to cover the label, so actual profit depends on what the label cost you. Adding optional shipping protection at 1% drops the number further. On this sale, the total platform cut is roughly $11.71, or about 10% of the total order value. That percentage climbs on cheaper items because of the fixed $0.30 fee.