In October 2020, we announced that we would be adding a 2.5% convenience fee to credit card payments. BCCNM pays a fee on every credit card transaction; in 2020, these fees totaled $750,000. The convenience fee was intended to offset these fees by passing the cost on to those individuals that use credit card for payment, rather than all registrants.
We do offer a payment option, Interac, that does not incur these fees; however, we have discovered that one of the banks available, TD Bank, is not working due to a technical issue between TD Bank cards and the Moneris payment system.
Credit card fee deferred
In light of the limited options we can currently offer for non-credit card payment, we have decided to temporarily defer the collection of the 2.5% fee.
Our technical team is working to disable the fee in our financial system; we expect this to be completed by Wednesday, January 13.
If you were charged the credit card fee
If you made a payment by credit card and were charged the convenience fee, you will have the amount of the convenience fee credited to your BCCNM account after April 1, 2021.
Reinstating the convenience fee at a later date
As a not-for-profit organization, BCCNM still requires the convenience fee to offset credit card charges. We will explore what additional non-credit card payment options are available before re-implementing the fee in the future. The exact date of implementation is not known at this time, but it will be after nurse and midwife renewal periods for 2021-22 are completed.
Questions?
More information
- More information on changes impacting nursing registrant fees
- Consider pre-authorized payment (PAP)
- One way to limit credit card fees in future is to sign up for the pre-authorized payment program. If you sign up for PAP you will need to pay your practising renewal fees for 2021-22 using the options available, and then monthly withdrawals will start in March 2021. By the time you need to renew again, you will have pre-paid most of your BCCNM registration fees (barring any fee increases).