Contractor Payment Processing: Rates, Surcharging Rules, and the Real Cost of Stripe vs Helcim vs Built-In

A 5-truck residential contractor doing $1.5M a year pays $15,000 to $25,000 in card processing fees annually. That’s not the cost of doing business. That’s the cost of not paying attention to the rate sheet.

Most contractors picked their payment processor the day they signed up for Jobber, Housecall Pro, or ServiceTitan. They clicked the box for the built-in payments because it was the path of least resistance, and they’ve been paying 2.9% + $0.30 on every card swipe since. Some of them are leaving $8,000 a year on the table by not running the math.

This is what processing actually costs in 2026, which platforms charge what, what’s legal where, and the cases where surcharging or ACH changes the calculation entirely.

How processing rates actually work

Every card transaction has three cost layers stacked on top of each other. Most contractors only see the third one.

Interchange. This is the fee the card-issuing bank (Chase, Capital One, Amex) charges to move money. Set by Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover. Varies by card type (debit is cheap, rewards cards are expensive, corporate cards are the most expensive), transaction type (card-present is cheaper than card-not-present), and merchant category. Range: roughly 1.15% + $0.05 for a basic debit card to 2.95% + $0.10 for a premium rewards card.

Assessments. Network fees paid to Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover. Small and fixed. Roughly 0.13-0.14% across all cards.

Processor markup. What your processor (Stripe, Square, Helcim, Jobber Payments) adds on top to make money. This is the only layer that varies between platforms, and the only layer you can negotiate or shop.

Flat-rate processors like Stripe and Square bundle all three into a single rate (2.9% + $0.30) and absorb the variance. Interchange-plus processors like Helcim charge interchange + assessments at cost, then add a small fixed markup. According to NerdWallet’s 2026 processing fee guide, the average effective rate for in-person card transactions is 1.93% + $0.08 and the average for online is 2.49% + $0.25.

The flat rate is simpler. Interchange-plus is cheaper at scale. The crossover point is roughly $10-15K/month in processed volume.

Stripe vs Square vs Helcim vs built-in field service payments

Here’s what each option actually costs in 2026.

Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 online, 2.7% + $0.05 in-person (card-present via Terminal). 0.8% on ACH, capped at $5. No monthly fee. Used by virtually every modern field service platform under the hood, including Jobber, Housecall Pro, FieldPulse, and many others.

Square: 2.6% + $0.10 in-person, 2.9% + $0.30 online (invoiced or card-not-present), 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed-in. 1% on ACH (minimum $1). No monthly fee. Popular with smaller contractors who already use Square for retail or POS-style operations.

Helcim: Interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 in-person, interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 online for the entry tier ($0-50K/mo). Volume discounts kick in above $50K/mo. ACH is 0.5% + $0.25 capped at $6. No monthly fee, no PCI fee, no statement fee. According to Helcim’s own pricing breakdown, the average effective rate runs about 25% lower than flat-rate competitors for shops above $15K/month.

Jobber Payments: 2.9% + $0.30 on cards, 1% on ACH. This is Stripe with Jobber branding. Per Jobber’s pricing page, the rate is identical to Stripe direct.

Housecall Pro Payments: 2.59% to 2.99% on cards depending on plan, around 1% on ACH. Per Rivetops’ Housecall Pro pricing breakdown, an $8,000 HVAC install costs $239.20 in card processing on a 2.99% rate. Instapay (same-day payout) adds another 1%.

ServiceTitan Payments: Negotiated per-account, typically 2.7-2.9% + $0.30 on cards. ServiceTitan doesn’t publish rates and most contractors don’t know what they’re paying until they look at the merchant statement.

For a 5-truck shop doing $1.5M annually with 80% of revenue on cards at a blended 2.85%, that’s $34,200 in card fees per year on a flat-rate processor vs roughly $25,700 on Helcim’s interchange-plus at scale. The $8,500 gap is real money.

A roofing owner on r/sweatystartup posted last fall about switching from Square to Helcim mid-year: “I was at $4,200/mo in fees with Square doing about $140K monthly volume. Switched to Helcim and now I’m paying about $3,000/mo for the same volume. $1,200/mo is a part-time helper or another 6 months of Google Ads.”

ACH vs card economics

This is the chart that should be on every contractor’s wall.

Payment method	Cost on $1,000 invoice	Cost on $10,000 invoice	Settlement time
Card (2.9% + $0.30)	$29.30	$290.30	Same day to 2 days
ACH (0.8% capped)	$5 to $8 (capped)	$5 to $8 (capped)	1 to 3 business days
Check	$0	$0	5 to 14 days plus deposit
Cash	$0	$0	Immediate

For a typical residential service shop with an average invoice of $850, the card vs ACH gap is $20 per invoice, annoying but tolerable. For a roofing or HVAC install shop with an average invoice of $9,000, the gap is $280 per invoice. Across a year of 200 installs, that’s $56,000 in avoidable card fees.

The reason most contractors take cards anyway: speed and friction. The customer pulls out a card without thinking. ACH requires them to find their checkbook and read the routing number. Field service platforms have made ACH easier (most now offer one-click bank linking via Plaid), but the customer still has to actively choose ACH over their card.

The play that works: card for small invoices ($0-$2K), nudge to ACH for medium invoices ($2K-$10K), require ACH or check for large invoices ($10K+). Some contractors do this by quoting a “card pay” price and a “bank transfer” price on the same invoice, with the bank transfer price being 2.5-3% lower.

Our invoicing guide covers the line-item formatting that makes this work without scaring customers.

Surcharging legality and disclosure

Surcharging (passing the card fee to the customer as a separate line item) is legal in 47 US states and DC. Banned in three: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine. Per Merchant Cost Consulting’s 2026 state-by-state guide, the rules in legal states require:

Written disclosure at point of sale. A sign at the counter, a line item on the invoice, a checkbox in the online payment flow. The customer must see the surcharge amount before they pay, not after.

Surcharge can’t exceed your actual processing cost. Capped at 3% by Visa and Mastercard network rules, or your actual effective rate, whichever is lower. You can’t pad it.

30-day advance notice to the card networks. Visa and Mastercard require you to notify them before you start surcharging. Most processors handle this for you.

No surcharge on debit cards. Federal law (Durbin Amendment) prohibits surcharging debit transactions. Only credit cards.

Maine is the exception in the banned states: surcharging is illegal there, but cash discount programs are explicitly allowed. A cash discount program lists the higher price as the default and offers a discount for cash, check, or ACH. Same effect, different math.

The honest read on whether to surcharge: it works for B2B and commercial contractors where the customer expects it. It costs you residential jobs. A plumber on ContractorTalk posted: “I added a 3% card surcharge last year. Lost two estimates that month to a competitor who didn’t surcharge. Quietly removed it. The 3% cost less than the lost jobs.”

For most residential contractors, building 3% into your underlying pricing and not surcharging is the better play. Your competitor probably did the same math.

Durable goods, utilities, and government pass-through exceptions

A few situations let contractors pass card fees through even in restrictive states.

Permit fees. When you pull a city permit and the customer is reimbursing you for the permit cost, the surcharge on the permit portion is typically allowed because it’s a government pass-through. Document it as a separate line item.

Utility deposits or hookups. Same logic. When you’re paying a utility on behalf of the customer (gas hookup deposit, water meter fee), the card fee on that portion is usually passable.

Government and non-profit work. Many state laws exempt government and non-profit transactions from surcharging restrictions. Verify with your state attorney general’s office, not your processor.

B2B commercial. Some states (notably for B2B-only transactions) have relaxed rules, and many commercial customers expect a 2-3% card fee line item on invoices over $5K. Per Centime’s B2B surcharge guide for 2026, B2B surcharging is widely accepted and almost never costs the deal when disclosed upfront.

These are exceptions, not loopholes. Get a CPA opinion if you’re going to lean on them.

Recurring billing for maintenance plans

Maintenance plans are where the processing math compounds. A $25/month HVAC tune-up plan billed via card costs $0.73 per month in fees (2.9% + $0.30). Over a year, that’s $8.75. Across 500 active plans, that’s $4,375 annually just to collect $150,000 in recurring revenue.

Same plans billed via recurring ACH cost roughly $0.50 per transaction, or $6 per plan per year. Across 500 plans, $3,000. The $1,375 saved isn’t massive on its own, but the bigger benefit of ACH for recurring billing is lower decline rates. Cards expire, get reissued after fraud, get declined for over-limit. ACH bank accounts rarely change. Industry data puts card-on-file decline rates at 8-12% per year vs 1-2% for ACH.

Our HVAC maintenance agreement guide covers the pricing structure that makes this work. The short version: bill the customer once a year via ACH for the full plan, not monthly via card. You save the fees, you skip the decline cycle, and the customer doesn’t think about it.

For larger commercial maintenance contracts ($250-$1,000/month), recurring ACH is non-negotiable. The fee savings alone pay for the office labor to chase declined cards.

What field service platforms actually offer for payments

If you’re already on Jobber, Housecall Pro, or ServiceTitan, you have built-in payments. Here’s whether to use them or run a separate processor.

Jobber Payments. Stripe under the hood at standard rates. Pros: full integration with invoicing, scheduling, customer records. Cons: no negotiation, no interchange-plus option. Use it unless you’re processing more than $20K/month and willing to manage a second processor login. Our Jobber pricing breakdown covers the full software stack cost.

Housecall Pro Payments. Similar story to Jobber. Slightly higher published rates (2.59-2.99% depending on plan). Use it for the integration. Switch to Helcim or direct Stripe if you’re optimizing margin at $25K+/month volume. Housecall Pro pricing details here.

ServiceTitan Payments. Bigger shops, negotiated rates, deeper integration with ServiceTitan’s accounting and reporting. Most ServiceTitan users stay in-platform because the workflow integration is worth the rate premium. If you’re paying ServiceTitan, you’re already not optimizing for cost.

FieldPulse, FieldEdge, ServiceFusion, Workiz. All offer integrated payments, typically Stripe or CardConnect rails at 2.6-2.9%. Same trade-off: convenience vs cost. Our QuickBooks-compatible field service guide covers how payments flow into accounting from each.

Standalone Helcim or Stripe direct. Cheaper, but you’ll need to manually reconcile payments back to invoices unless your field service platform has a Helcim or direct-Stripe integration. The reconciliation labor is non-trivial. For most multi-truck contractors, the integration is worth more than the rate savings.

The exception: if you have a dedicated bookkeeper or office manager who already does reconciliation, switching to Helcim and saving $8,000/year on fees is a no-brainer. Dispatch software and payment processing are the two highest-leverage operational choices a multi-truck shop makes.

The honest take

Most contractors are overpaying on processing because the built-in option in their field service platform is the path of least resistance. That’s fine when you’re under $10K/month in card volume. Above $20K/month, you’re throwing away thousands of dollars annually for the convenience of one login.

The decision tree is short:

• Under $10K/month in card volume: stay with your field service platform’s built-in payments. The rate difference is too small to justify managing a second processor.
• $10K to $25K/month: run the actual numbers on Helcim. If the savings net of integration labor is over $200/month, switch.
• Above $25K/month: you should already be on Helcim or a directly-negotiated processor, not flat-rate. If you’re not, you’re leaving real money on the table.

Use ACH as the default for invoices over $3,000 and required for invoices over $10,000. Surcharge in B2B contexts where it’s normalized. Don’t surcharge in residential if you can absorb 3% in pricing, because losing one deal to a non-surcharging competitor costs more than 100 surcharges combined.

Maintenance plans go on annual recurring ACH, not monthly card. Card-on-file is a fallback, not a default.

And before you set any of this up, know your state’s surcharge law. The fine in Connecticut is $500 per violation. The fine in Massachusetts can be higher. The bookkeeper in Maine will quietly remind you that cash discounts are the workaround there.

The contractors who get processing right save $5-15K a year compared to the contractors who never look at their merchant statement. That’s the budget for another lead source, another tech, or another six months of runway. Worth the afternoon of math.