--- title: "Payments — Palaestral" description: "A client pays by card into your own Stripe account, and the money is yours. Refunds follow the terms each booking was sold under; disputes are yours to answer." canonical: "https://palaestral.com/product/payments" --- # Paid into your own Stripe account. Palaestral is booking, payments and client-record software for an independent instructor who sells their own time — surf, yoga, running, strength. A client pays on Stripe's own page, into a Stripe account that is yours and stays yours. Each refund follows the terms its booking was sold under. One $55.00 seat, paid and split Dawn patrol · Surf $55.00 paid by one client, on one card - **Yours, in your Stripe account, before Palaestral's fee**: $53.10 - **Palaestral**: Not set yet - **Card processing, to Stripe**: −$1.90 1. Client's card $55.00 on Stripe's page 2. Your account $53.10 in your balance, before Palaestral's fee 3. Your bank on your own payout schedule - **Yours**: The card is charged on your own Stripe account, so you are the merchant and your money never sits with Palaestral on the way through. - **Palaestral**: Pricing is set before signups open in January 2027. Nothing is charged before then. - **Card processing**: Stripe's standard US card rate, 2.9% + 30¢ a charge as of October 20, 2026, billed to your own account. A refund does not return it. Sample data. Not a real instructor or client. - $53.10 of a $55.00 seat is yours after card processing, before Palaestral's fee - 24 hours' notice for a full refund, by default - $5.70 to call off a full surf morning, in card processing ## You are the merchant A client's card is charged by Stripe on your own Stripe account. The money is yours, Stripe bills its processing to you, and any 1099-K is issued in your name. You connect a Stripe account of your own and keep it, with its own dashboard, and Stripe pays your balance out to your bank on the schedule that account sets. Your money never sits with Palaestral on the way. The one part of a payment that passes through is a studio's share, where you teach at a studio that keeps one. ## What a payment costs Pricing is set before signups open in January 2027. Nothing is charged before then. Card processing is Stripe's, billed to your own account, which sets the rate you pay: 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). A client pays exactly the price an instructor lists, and nothing is added to it. If Palaestral's price changes, you hear before it applies, and it never reaches a booking already made. ## Stripe's own page A client pays by card on Stripe's own payment page, and the card number never reaches Palaestral. The wallet on their phone stands in for the card where the phone holds one and your Stripe account has it on. There are no bank debits, whose money can be days away while the seat is already taken, and a client paying from abroad sees your price as you set it, never a converted one carrying a fee. A payment is recorded once Stripe reports it, so one that went through counts even if the client's page closed first. ## Refunds A booking is refunded out of your Stripe balance on the terms it was sold under, copied onto it when it was sold. A lesson you call off comes back in full, and marking a client absent sends nothing back. Unless you write your own terms, you sell under Standard: “100% back 1 day ahead or more; 50% back 12 hours ahead or more. 100% back if conditions are called.” A refund is sent to Stripe within minutes. Palaestral's fee comes back to you in the same proportion, and Stripe's card processing stays with Stripe. Call off a full surf morning for conditions under those terms, and each of its 3 clients is emailed and refunded in full, $165.00 in all. What the morning costs you is the $5.70 of card processing a refund does not return. ## Disputes A chargeback is raised against your Stripe account, because you are the merchant. You answer it with your own evidence from your own Stripe dashboard, and Palaestral is not a party to it. While a dispute is open, no refund of that payment is sent, because Stripe refuses one. A refund owed on it goes once you win. ## What stays with you - Your Stripe account, its dashboard and its balance, which stay yours if you leave Palaestral. - Every payment and refund, recorded against what it paid for, including a refund you send from your own Stripe dashboard. - The terms each booking was sold under, which decide its refund whatever you change later. ## Read further - [Getting paid](https://palaestral.com/learn/getting-paid) 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. - [Cancellation terms](https://palaestral.com/learn/cancellation-terms) How much comes back when a client cancels, when you call a lesson off, or when conditions do: the terms you set, copied onto each booking when it is sold. - [Leaving Palaestral](https://palaestral.com/learn/leaving-palaestral) Download everything Palaestral holds about you in one file, close your account when you choose, and know what closing does for your clients and what is kept. Five steps from a link in your inbox to a page your clients book from. - [Get started](https://palaestral.com/start) - [Pricing](https://palaestral.com/pricing)