Using Empower Pricing

Empower Pricing is a configurable pricing program that allows merchants to offset credit card processing fees by legally passing a portion of those fees to their customers. Empower supports multiple compliant billing models depending on the merchant’s business type, location, and accepted card types.

Empower supports below pricing models such as:

• Cash Discount with Dual Pricing - A discount is offered to customers who pay via cash, check, or store-branded gift cards.

• Surcharging - An additional fee is applied to credit card transactions to recover processing costs.

• Convenience Fees - Fees charged for payments made through alternative channels, like online or phone.

• Service Fees - Applied to specific industries (such as government or education) based on Merchant Category Code (MCC).

Choose Empower Pricing if your merchant wants to recover payment processing costs in a legally supported way. Empower is ideal for merchants in states and industries where compliant fee recovery programs are allowed.

Empower Pricing Flow

Empower Pricing onboarding is handled via the Hosted Merchant Onboarding Setup API. The process includes two validation checkpoints to ensure compliance with eligibility rules.

Follow these steps to onboard a merchant using Empower pricing:

1

Assign an Empower Pricing Template

Begin the onboarding process by assigning an Empower Pricing Template. This template must have the IsEmpower attribute set to true. The template can be associated with a specific Hierarchy Node Key (HNK), but this is optional.

Empower templates are configured by the Xplor Pay team and include all required eligibility criteria.

2

Provide Eligibility Information

When using an Empower pricing template, pass the following mandatory eligibility fields in the API request:

• SalesProfile.MccCode

• PhysicalAddress.StateCode

• SalesProfile.CardBrands

• SalesProfile.IsECommerce

• countryCode

E-Commerce Classification:

When onboarding a merchant with Empower Pricing, you must indicate whether the merchant is E-Commerce or Non E-Commerce using the IsECommerce field.

• If a merchant processes both E-Commerce and in-person transactions, they must be onboarded as two separate MIDs (Merchant IDs), each with the appropriate classification.

This classification is required to validate eligibility during onboarding.

3

API Validation

After the initial API call to the HMO Setup endpoint, the system checks if the selected or default template is Empower.

If not Empower, the system proceeds with the default pricing template associated with the HNK. standard onboarding.

And if is Empower, the system calls the Pricing Plan API GET method /api/pricing/v2/PricingPlan/{merchantNumber}/templates/{pricingPlanTemplateId}/eligibility to validate eligibility.

• If validation fails, the onboarding is blocked, and the API returns an error.

• If validation passes, the system returns a hosted onboarding application URL.

4

Hosted Application Launch

The integrator can use the application URL from the API response to redirect the merchant to the hosted onboarding page or Xplor Pay send a welcome email to the merchant with the HMO link.

The application form may lock or pre-fill certain eligibility-related fields (such as MCC, State, etc.) to prevent editing and preserve data integrity.

5

Final Submission

Once the merchant completes all required fields in the application, it will proceed to a Review and Sign page where the system performs a second validation of the Empower eligibility fields.

This step ensures that no critical fields (such as MCC, State, Card Types, or E-Commerce status) are altered during onboarding, which can make the merchant ineligible for the Empower pricing template.

If the merchant edits the locked fields or eligibility is violated, the following error message appears on the UI, and the application cannot proceed until corrected.

We’re unable to submit your application at this time. Your data has been saved. Please contact your software provider for assistance.

6

Submit the Application

Once all eligibility fields pass the final validation, the merchant can proceed to submit the application. Upon submission, the merchant proceeds to the e-signature process, where they can review and sign the merchant agreement.

Once the merchant signs the application, it is automatically submitted.

The user is then redirected either to Xplor Pay or to a return URL configured by the partner.

The application status is updated and returned via API.

If your integration supports webhooks, status updates will also be sent automatically to the configured webhook URL.