---
title: "Getting paid — Palaestral"
description: "Payments go to your own Stripe account, Stripe bills its processing to you, and a refund comes out of your balance on the terms the booking was sold under."
canonical: "https://palaestral.com/learn/getting-paid"
---

# How you get paid.

A client pays you, through Stripe, into your own Stripe account. Here is what that means for the money, the fees and the refunds.

## Who is the merchant when a client pays me?

You are. A client's card is charged by Stripe on your own Stripe account: the money is yours, Stripe bills its processing fee to you, and any 1099-K is issued in your name. Your money never sits with Palaestral on the way through, and no card number is ever held here. You connect a Stripe account of your own when you start, and you keep it, with its own dashboard.

## What does a payment cost me?

Stripe's card processing, which at its standard US card rate is 2.9% + 30¢ a charge as of October 20, 2026 on [Stripe's pricing page](https://stripe.com/pricing); your own Stripe account sets the rate you actually pay. Palaestral's own fee is what the [pricing page](https://palaestral.com/pricing) states. A client pays exactly the price an instructor lists, and nothing is added to it.

A booking is confirmed when Stripe reports the payment, never when the client's browser comes back from paying, so a payment that went through is recorded even if the page closed first.

## When does the money reach my bank?

Stripe pays your balance out to your bank on the schedule your Stripe account sets.

## How does a refund work?

A booking is refunded on the cancellation terms it was sold under, out of your Stripe balance. A client who cancels gets the share their notice earns under those terms. A lesson you call off comes back in full. The [cancellation terms guide](https://palaestral.com/learn/cancellation-terms) explains how terms are set, and the [terms page](https://palaestral.com/terms#refunds) sets out every case.

What becomes of the fees on a refunded booking is on the [terms page](https://palaestral.com/terms#fees-on-a-refund).

[Cancellation terms](https://palaestral.com/learn/cancellation-terms)