Afterpay
Last updated: September 18, 2025
Afterpay is a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) payment method offered in various markets, allowing customers the option to pay for the bookings in installments. You as the activity provider will receive the full payment, and Afterpay will collect the money in installments from your customer.
The payment method is available only for online payments and to clients in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
Please contact FareHarbor Support to request Afterpay be enabled on your Dashboard.
Tip: Once Afterpay is enabled on your Dashboard, promote the availability of the payment method on your website. Operators that advertised Afterpay on their website observed twice the number of bookings completed with the payment method.
How does it work?
After your customer chooses the number of tickets for each customer type, the next step is to select their payment method.
Note: Afterpay payments require the customer to enter their name, address, city, state, postal code and country before proceeding.
After clicking Complete and Pay, the customer is redirected to Afterpay to enter their account information, then redirected back to FareHarbor to view their booking confirmation:
The booking overview also shows Afterpay as the payment method:
Viewing Afterpay payments in reports
You can view Afterpay payments in reports
In the Sales report, group by Credit Card Type and select Afterpay as the type of card:
Disputes, refunds, and payouts
- Disputes are possible for payments made through Afterpay, and standard dispute resolution procedures will apply.
- Refunds are processed as normal.
- Payouts are handled as normal.
- Stripe is the only supported payment processor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a spend limit for customers using Afterpay?
The spend limit depends on the customer. Afterpay payments have a minimum value of $1 and maximum of around $2000 USD. The spend limit is determined per-customer by Afterpay based on their previous interactions with Afterpay. For more information on how the spend limit is determined, reference Afterpay’s help center.
Can I use Afterpay to sell high ticket items like a private event or charter?
Due to the spend limit, Afterpay is not a suitable solution for bookings over $2000 in cost.
Why do some customers see Afterpay as a payment option even if their booking amount exceeds Afterpay’s spending limit?
Due to the unique per-customer spend limit and Afterpay confirming that on their end, customers will see Afterpay as a payment method regardless of the price of the booking. When they attempt to complete booking with Afterpay and are declined due to their spend limit the booking will not go through. They will then be able to use a different payment method.
Is the processing fee in addition to the credit card fees?
No, it’s not in addition to the credit card fees. It’s a flat fee.
If the customer fails to pay Afterpay, will Afterpay reverse the payment from your account?
No, once the booking is completed online, you will receive the full payment like a regular payment in your payouts. Afterpay takes over the liability of collecting the remaining amount from the customer.
Why are the processing fees higher than the standard card processing fees?
Buy Now, Pay Later payments are generally “riskier” than traditional payment methods, as the chance of the customer not completing the payment with Afterpay is higher.
Companies are however, protected from this, as they don’t have to follow-up with the customers to collect the remaining amount.
Also, Afterpay’s processing fees for companies directly working with them, range from 4% to 8% depending on the payment amount, the customer’s risk profile, the reputation of the company. etc. This fee is paid by the company.
With FareHarbor, the following processing fees apply:
- 3.8% + 30 cents for USD
- 4.8% + 30 cents for AUD
- 4.88% + 30 cents for NZD
Which cards does Afterpay accept?
Afterpay accepts Amex, MasterCard and Visa that were issued in the customer’s country of residence.
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Steps to enable Afterpay for existing clients
Note: Enabling Afterpay for existing clients will trigger Stripe to collect additional verification information from clients. This could disrupt their payment processing until complete, so please follow these steps carefully.
- Go to the #payments-gateway-public channel and complete the Workflow.
- Product will then enable Afterpay for the Dashboard in Stripe and respond to the workflow slack when complete.
- The client is then required to immediately complete verification on Stripe (accessible via the Payment Setup Checklist in their Dashboard). This is typically entering an email address in Stripe.
- Once Stripe verification is complete, FH Admins can enable Afterpay in Advanced Company Settings > Payments > enable Afterpay payments.
- Afterpay will then be available for customers to use as a payment method.
Steps to enable Afterpay for new clients
This is applicable only to clients who have not yet processed payments or completed their Payment Setup Checklist.
- Go to advanced company settings.
- Select the checkbox to enable AfterPay.
- Click Save.
Processing fees for Afterpay
Processing Fees for AfterPay with FareHarbor are set at:
- 3.8% + 30 cents for USD
- 4.8% + 30 cents for AUD
- 4.88% + 30 cents for NZD
The client pays the processing fee. It is not possible to pass the processing fee to the customer.
Refunds & Disputes
FareHarbor cannot refund Afterpay bookings after 120 days. If a booking needs to be refunded after more than 120 days, the client must coordinate with the customer to manage the refund process outside of FareHarbor.
Afterpay payments can be disputed though the dispute rate so far is very low.
Suitability for Afterpay
AfterPay is recommended for companies with an average booking value of between $150-$2000 USD.
There is a maximum spend limit of around ~3000 USD for the end customers
- The spend limit for end customers is determined per-customer by Afterpay based on their previous interactions with Afterpay. For more information on how the spend limit is determined, reference Afterpay’s help center.
- Due to the unique per-customer spend limit and Afterpay confirming that on their end, customers will see Afterpay as a payment method regardless of the price of the booking. When they attempt to complete booking with Afterpay and are declined due to their spend limit the booking will not go through.
- Therefore “Private Events” type companies that charge bookings at more than 5k USD, for instance, are not suited for Afterpay.
Selling points
- Most popular “Buy Now, Pay Later” payment method: Afterpay is one of the most popular “buy now, pay later” online payment methods, with 65% of merchants in Australia and 59% in New Zealand using the payment method (Statista 2023).
- Customers enjoy flexibility: Customers can choose to pay their booking in installments through Afterpay, incentivizing them to checkout on higher value bookings.
- Client receives the full payment: Clients receive the entire amount upfront, they don’t need to chase their customers to collect the remainder of the payments.
- Competitive rate: FareHarbor offers Afterpay through Stripe at a competitive rate, so clients can save money while improving their customers’ online payment experience.
- Afterpay converts better than other redirect payment methods: During beta testing, we observed that Afterpay conversions performed better than that of other redirect-based payment methods. Clients can be confident that by enabling Afterpay, their payment conversions would not be negatively impacted.
- Advertising Afterpay increases payment method usage by 2x: During beta, we observed that companies that advertised Afterpay on their website experienced 2x more payments completed using the payment method.