Billing
Overview​
Swan charges banking fees directly for each account as defined in the Terms and Conditions. Swan deducts banking fees in almost real-time directly from the Swan account. For each fee charged to the account, a transaction is created automatically that is included on the monthly account statement.
Billing begins automatically when an account is created, for both company and individual accounts. For all accounts created before March 2023, the billing module was activated on 1 March 2023.
To help you and your users keep track of fees, Swan generates a dedicated invoice automatically for all Swan company account holders, generated at the same time as the monthly account statement. The invoice lists all banking fees charged during the monthly billing period, which begins on the first of each month.
Swan fees​
Swan charges different banking and merchant fees. When the Swan API detects transactions with associated banking fees, the fees are scheduled automatically, except fees related to payment incidents.
There are two dedicated transaction types for fees:
FeesOut indicates a fee debited from a Swan account, while FeesIn indicates a fee credited to a Swan account.
On a fee's expected execution date, Swan checks the account's Available balance to see if it's sufficient to cover the fee.
Available balance | Events |
|---|---|
| ✓ Sufficient to cover fee | Swan executes the fee transaction. The status changes to Booked. |
| ✗ Not sufficient to cover fee | Swan doesn't execute the fee transaction. Instead, the status changes to Pending.Each time funds arrive in the account, Swan checks if the Available balance is sufficient to cover the fee. As soon as the Available balance is sufficient, Swan executes the fee transaction. |
Fees related to payment incidents (for example, direct debit rejections due to an insufficient balance), are deducted 14 days after being communicated.
The FeesOut transaction appears instantly on the transaction history with the status Upcoming.
The transaction is booked automatically 14 days later.
Standard fees​
Fee amounts are not listed because they can vary by contract. Please check your Terms and Conditions for your precise fees.
| Fee | Billed with Value Added Tax (VAT) | Booked |
|---|---|---|
| Cash withdrawals from cash machines (ATM) in euros | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Cash withdrawals from cash machines (ATM) not in euros | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Payment for goods and services in stores or remotely not denominated and carried out in euros | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Rejection of an outgoing direct debit due to an insufficient balance | ✗ No | 14 days after disclosure of the charges on the account |
| Improper use of the account Attempted or actual actions that are against the law or contrary to this account agreement | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Handling legal or administrative garnishments, third party debt orders | ✗ No | 14 days after disclosure of the charges on the account |
| Preparation of a circularization letter for a legal entity holder | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Preparation of a letter certifying the existence of an account with Swan | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Handling fees for management of an unauthorised overdraft | ✗ No | 14 days after disclosure of the charges on the account |
| Adding funds to the account by bank card | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Call to Customer Service | ✗ No | n/a |
| SEPA Direct Debit merchant fees for transactions up to €200 | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| SEPA Direct Debit merchant fees for transactions over €200 | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
| Returned merchant SEPA Direct Debit transactions | ✓ Yes | Immediately |
Charging custom fees​
Swan shares revenue from fees with Partners. However, the fees you can charge are strictly regulated.
You can customize banking fees and some other types of fees for your project. In customizing your fees, you might choose to either (1) absorb some of the fees yourself, or (2) charge your users markup on top of Swan's fees. Allowing for markup is Swan's way of sharing fee revenue with you.
Every time you change your list of fees, Swan automatically updates the financial conditions in your Swan Terms and Conditions and sends them to all current users. There is a two-month waiting period before the changes automatically take effect for your current users. New users follow the updated Terms and Conditions from the start.
Refer to the guide build a compliant billing offer to learn what you can and can't charge, and how to customize your offer.
To learn more, please discuss billing offers with your Account Manager.
Usage-based billing metrics​
In addition to fixed fees, some Swan features have usage-based fees. You're charged based on actual usage during each billing period.
The following table lists each billable metric and the event that triggers billing.
| Category | Metric | Billing trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts | Account subscriptions | Accounts with Verified status that are Enabled and not in Closing or Closed status on the 1st of each month. Billing begins when the payment level status reaches Unlimited. The first and closing months are billed in full. |
| Account member subscriptions | All additional Enabled members for an account (excluding the legal representative). | |
| Account opening fee | Account holders who started verification during the billing period (Pending banking verification status). | |
| Additional account fee | A monthly fee is charged for opening the initial account; this covers the opening of any additional accounts associated with it. | |
| Capital deposit | Share deposit certificates | Number of capital deposit cases completed during the billing period. |
| Cards | Apple Pay card subscriptions | Number of cards successfully added as Apple Pay digital cards during the billing period. |
| Apple Pay transaction fee | An additional fee for transactions made using Apple Pay. | |
| Card subscriptions | Virtual cards Enabled at least one day during the billing period. | |
| Card transactions | Number of card-out booked transactions (including Apple Pay). | |
| Card products | Number of card products Enabled for a project. Monthly fees still apply to Suspended card products that have at least one Enabled card. | |
| Physical cards printing & shipping | Number of cards shipped during the billing period. | |
| Single-use virtual (SUV) cards | Number of SUV cards created during the billing period. | |
| SEPA | SEPA transactions | Number of transactions booked during the billing period (Instant SCT, SCT, SDD Core, SDD B2B). |
| SEPA volume | Total amount of transactions booked during the billing period (Instant SCT, SCT, SDD Core, SDD B2B). | |
| Text messages | Text messages | Number of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) related text messages sent during the billing period. |
Invoices​
Swan generates a dedicated invoice automatically for all company account holders, generated at the same time as the monthly account statement. The invoice lists all banking fees charged during the monthly billing period, which begins on the first of each month.
If a fee is refunded and the corresponding invoice was already generated, Swan generates a refund note for the refunded amount. Access refund notes the same way you access invoices. If no banking fees were charged during the billing period, Swan doesn't generate an invoice.
Invoices are generated in the account language, and labels for each fee transaction are also in the account language. You or your user can change the account language; doing so impacts new invoices and fees, but won't change existing fee labels or previously generated invoices.
Subscribe to the AccountInvoice.Generated webhook to receive a notification each time an invoice is generated.
You can also access company account invoices with the API, from your Dashboard, or on Swan's Web Banking interface.
Monthly invoices aren't generated for individual accounts.
Instead, fees are included on the standard monthly account statement. An annual fee statement is provided automatically once a year, at the end of January's account statement.
Individual account holders can also review fee transactions in their transaction history. If you're not using Swan's Web Banking interface, make sure to include fees in your implementation of the transaction history.
VAT number​
Optionally, provide your account holder's Value Added Tax, or VAT, number. If provided, Swan adds the VAT number to the invoice.
You can provide the VAT number several ways:
- When creating the onboarding link for the new company account
- When updating a company onboarding
- When updating an account holder using the
updateAccountHoldermutation
If you provide a valid VAT number for a company registered in a European country other than France, Swan automatically applies the reverse charge mechanism. With the reverse charge mechanism, VAT isn't added and must be paid by the end user in accordance with article 283-2 of the French General Tax Code.