What a $5,000 Install Really Loses to Card Fees (and What ACH Saves)

On a $180 service call, nobody thinks twice about the card fee. It’s a few dollars, it’s the cost of getting paid on the spot, and it’s worth it. But home-service tickets don’t stay small. A system replacement, a re-pipe, a panel upgrade or a roof can run well into the thousands, and a percentage fee grows right along with the ticket.

Let’s do the math on a single $5,000 install, with real numbers.

The card math on $5,000

Many card processors in the US charge somewhere around 2.9% plus 30 cents for a typical card payment taken online. On MyHomeService360 the card fee is 3.9% + 30¢. On $5,000 that works out to:

• Card fee: 3.9% of $5,000 is $195, plus 30¢, so $195.30.
• You keep: $4,804.70.

That’s real money on one job. Do ten installs a month and it’s close to $2,000 in card fees, which is often more than the margin on a whole service call day.

The same $5,000 by bank payment

ACH is a payment straight from the customer’s bank account. On MyHomeService360 it costs up to 1.8%, never more than $10. That cap hits long before $5,000, so:

• ACH fee: $10, the cap.
• You keep: $4,990.

That’s $185.30 more in your pocket on a single install. Across ten installs a month, it’s about $1,850, or more than $22,000 a year, just from how the customer pays. The only trade-off is time: bank payments usually take about 4 business days to clear, instead of a card’s two or so.

Deposit by card, balance by bank

You don’t have to choose one or the other. A common setup on big jobs:

1. Deposit by card when they approve. A 50% deposit of $2,500 by card costs $97.80. You get committed money in hand the same day to buy the equipment.
2. Balance by bank when the job is done. The remaining $2,500 by ACH costs $10.

Total fees: $107.80 instead of $195.30, and you still got the speed of a card when it mattered most.

How to steer big jobs to bank payment

• Put both options on every big invoice. Customers pick what’s in front of them. If “Pay by bank” is a button right next to “Pay by card,” plenty of people use it.
• Say it once, plainly. “For bigger jobs, paying by bank helps us keep prices down.” Most homeowners appreciate the honesty.
• Don’t refuse cards. Some customers want the points or need the float. Losing a $5,000 job to save $185 is a bad trade.
• Build your costs into your prices. Your price book should already account for the cost of getting paid. We’d rather you do that than add surcharges, which have their own rules by state and card network.

Check your own numbers

Type any amount into our card and ACH fee calculator to see the fee and what you keep, side by side. And if you want the bigger picture, our software cost calculator adds up a year of subscriptions and payment fees on your current setup next to ours.

Every fee we charge is on the pricing page. The software itself is $0 a month with unlimited users, no contract and no card to sign up. If you never take a payment through it, you never pay us anything.

One-sentence takeaway: On a $5,000 install, a card costs $195.30 and a bank payment costs $10, so offering ACH on big jobs is one of the easiest raises a contractor can give themselves.

Questions contractors ask

How much does a $5,000 card payment cost on MyHomeService360?

At 3.9% + 30¢, that’s $195.30 in total. You keep $4,804.70.

How much does the same payment cost by ACH bank transfer?

$10. The ACH fee is up to 1.8%, so a bank payment never costs more than $10, whatever the amount.

Should I add a surcharge for card payments?

We’d rather you build your costs into your prices and offer bank payment on big jobs. Surcharge rules vary by state and by card network, so check both before you try it.