CompassPay FAQs

CompassPay FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Which credit cards are accepted?

We accept the following types of cards:



We do not accept the following cards:



Is there a guide available for Parents?

Yes, click here to access the Parent Guide.

What if a parent disputes a payment or instigates a chargeback?

As part of our service, we manage any chargeback requests or payment disputes. Should a parent question a payment or request a chargeback with their bank or financial institution, we will respond to their financial institution with details of the transaction and why it is genuine. We do not charge for this service.

Should the card holder decide to progress with the chargeback or dispute and the funds be recovered by their financial institution, we will contact you with the details of transaction and require a refund of the amount. This escalated process will attract a chargeback fee. Please refer to your CompassPay fees and charges for further details.

We have not received a transfer?

Should you not receive an expected transfer, please check the following:

  1. Log in to CompassPay and check the Account Details > Hold Funds option is not checked
  1. Check the transfers tab in CompassPay to see if any transfers are listed

If you are still unable to determine why you have not received a transfer, please contact us.

Do the merchant charges come out of the transfer amount?

No. We always transfer you the full amount.  You will receive a merchant charge statement from us at the end of each month.

Can I nominate two contacts to receive the transfer notification email?

We currently only send one notification for each transfer to a single email address. You may be able to setup a distribution group at your school (i.e. transfers@school.edu.au) which may forward to multiple addresses.

Please note: Contact information for these communications needs to be a department supplied email and not a personal email eg. gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc...

Can the contact for transfer notifications be different to invoice notifications?
Yes. You can change the email address for transfer notifications in CompassPay, under the Account Details tab. If you would like to change the email address for school invoices please call us on 03 9005 5217 or email us at credit@jdlf.com.au 

A parent’s credit card is being rejected.
There are a number of reasons why a parent's credit card may be rejected, below are the primary reasons to assist you in troubleshooting this issue should a parent contact your school about it:
  1. Credit card is over limit (insufficient funds) – Cardholder should contact bank
  2. Credit card has expired – Cardholder should contact bank
  3. The credit card was not issued in Australia - We do not accept internationally issued cards
  4. A stop has been placed on the card by the cardholders financial institution – Cardholder should contact bank
  5. The card number is incorrect – Cardholder should check numbers on card
  6. The card was unable to be verified by the cardholder’s financial institution at this time. – Try again later
Does the parent receive a confirmation of payment?
Yes. A parent will receive an email confirmation that their payment was processed. If they do not have a valid registered email address in Compass, they will not receive an email notification.

What if a parent has a transaction on their statement that they don’t remember?
A transaction will appear on a credit card statement as ‘COMPASSPAY.COM’.  If a parent is unsure what this payment is for, they should:
  1. Log in to Compass and go to the My Payments tab (Under Tools menu); or
  2. Go to www.compasspay.com and enter the basic details of the their credit card and the transaction to see further details.
How are the rates and charges calculated?
The rates and charges are based on your school’s merchant rate.
  1. Per transaction: $0.39
  2. Percentage rate: 2.5% of transaction value
Please note: We do not charge varied rates for different credit card grades (i.e. Debit, Standard, Corporate, and Platinum). Instead we charge a blended rate for ease of school budgeting and billing.

I can get a lower merchant rate directly with my bank.

Transactions processed online (rather than in person using a POS device) attract additional charges and are processed as “Card not present” transactions. As we do not provide a POS terminal, it is not possible for us to offer/match your bank rates.

Our merchant rates also take into account a number of additional costs which may include:
  1. payment gateway and verification costs
  2. bank and credit card interchange rates
  3. risk and associated collateral charges
  4. product integration costs
  5. product profit
  6. insurances
  7. fault and charge correction overheads
  8. chargeback handling
  9. compliance and testing for PCI-DSS
  10. staff and audit costs
Like all of our products, we welcome feedback on any of our modules.

How are credit card details stored in Compass?
We never store full credit card details in Compass. While we store basic details for auditing and verification details, we do not store full credit card numbers or the card CVV.

When a payment is processed through Compass or CompassPay, we process the transaction over SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and pass the details to our banking provider/finance partner. In the event that a recurring payment is created, we pass the credit card details to our banking partner who provide us with a token. This token allows us to charge this card again at another time.

We and our banking partners (who are Tier 1 PCI DSS compliant) subscribe to PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). PCI DSS is a set of rules created by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to encourage the broad adoption of consistent data security measures around the world.

More information about this standard can be found at www.pcisecuritystandards.org

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