You are correct. Typical merchant fees include a base cost for each transaction plus a percentage of the charge. When my business accepts a card (a rare occasion since we receive paper checks for 99% of our invoices) we are charged 30 cents plus 2.9% of the sale amount. If we had a large volume I'm sure those fees can be negotiated downward but still the cost to the organization to accept a 1 cent donation will be more than a penny.
Only very ordinary people would consider it, and guess sending 1 penny would cost more than the 1 penny itself. Or not?
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