Payments & Fees
How money moves through HOAlyst, what it costs, and who holds it.
Effective August 19, 2026
Who holds your money
Homeowner payments — assessments, fines, late fees and special assessments — are charged directly on your association’s own account with our payment processor, Stripe. The money settles to your association’s bank account on Stripe’s payout schedule.
HOAlyst never holds, receives or transmits your association’s funds. We are a software provider; Stripe is the payment processor and the money transmitter. Your association is the merchant of record for its own dues.
Because of this, HOAlyst cannot collect payments for an association until that association has completed Stripe’s verification and enabled payouts. Until then, payments are declined rather than collected into an account you cannot draw from.
Processing fees
Stripe charges a fee on every payment. As of this writing that is 2.9% + $0.30 per card payment. ACH bank transfers cost substantially less, which is why HOAlyst presents ACH first.
Each association chooses whether it absorbs that fee or passes it on to the paying homeowner. That choice is made by the board and can be changed at any time.
When a fee is passed on
The fee is calculated so that the association receives the full amount owed and the payer covers the processing cost. Because a processor charges its percentage on the total collected — not on the assessment underneath it — the fee is slightly more than 2.9% of the assessment alone.
On a $275.00 assessment with a card, the fee is $8.53 and the total charged is $283.53. Stripe deducts $8.52, leaving the association the $275.00 it was owed.
The exact fee and the exact total are shown to the payer before they confirm. No fee is ever added after the fact, and no payment is taken for more than the amount displayed.
Some states restrict or prohibit passing card processing fees to residents, and card network rules limit any such charge to the actual cost of acceptance. An association is responsible for confirming that passing fees on is permitted where it operates.
Refunds and returned payments
A refund is issued against the same account that took the payment and follows Stripe’s normal timing. Processing fees on a refunded payment are not returned by the processor.
A bank transfer can be returned days after it appears to have settled. When that happens the amount becomes owed again, the association’s ledger records the reversal, and the payer is notified. Whether a returned payment leaves the original due date standing is governed by each association’s own documents, not by HOAlyst.
Whether a homeowner is charged a fee for a returned payment, and how much, is also set by their association from its own documents. HOAlyst does not set that amount and will not state one that an association has not adopted.
Separately, if an association’s payment to HOAlyst is returned by its bank, a returned-payment fee of $50 is added to that association’s next invoice — or the amount that was returned, if that is less than $50. The fee is never larger than the payment it relates to. This is a fee between HOAlyst and the association only; it is never passed to a homeowner and never appears in an association’s ledger.
HOAlyst’s own subscription
An association’s HOAlyst subscription is separate from homeowner dues and is billed to the association by HOAlyst. It is charged on HOAlyst’s own account — never taken out of dues collected from homeowners. Cancelling a subscription never removes residents’ access to their own payment and violation history.
Questions about a specific charge should go to your association’s board. Sign in to see every charge and payment on your account.