Destination charge

A destination charge is a card payment collected by a platform and passed to the business that earned it, minus a platform fee. The money lands in the shop's own account rather than the platform's.

Also called: Stripe destination charge, split payment, connected account payout

The distinction matters when something goes wrong. Under a destination charge, a refund has to reverse the transfer as well as return the money, or the platform refunds the client out of its own pocket while the shop keeps the funds.

For a shop owner the practical consequence is that payouts arrive on the processor's normal schedule, into an account in the shop's name, and the platform's fee is visible on every charge rather than netted off invisibly.

Booked uses destination charges so a shop's takings are its own money throughout, and the platform fee is a stated percentage of each successful charge.