Payment processing built for auto dealerships and service centers

Why the percentage matters on a repair ticket

Auto businesses take big card payments: a brake job, a transmission, a deposit on a special-order part. On a ticket that size, the fixed per-sale fee barely registers and the percentage does nearly all the work, so a few tenths of a point turn into real money over a month. Our guide on how to reduce credit card processing fees covers the levers that matter most.

A service department also takes money in more places than most shops: the write-up desk, the parts counter, the cashier's window and sometimes the lot. Each spot needs a terminal that reads chip and tap, because every payment keyed in by hand costs more than one the terminal reads.

What does a repair ticket cost to process?

Mostly the percentage, and the card and how you take it set the percentage. Here's an $1,800 repair priced with Visa's US interchange schedule effective April 18, 2026, and debit cards from banks with $10 billion or more in assets at their Regulation II cap:

Keying that premium card costs $7.20 more than tapping it. At 25 tickets like that a month, that's $180, or $2,160 a year, before network fees and markup. So when the customer is at the counter, take the card there. When they aren't, a payment link or the virtual terminal is still the right tool, just a costlier one. On interchange-plus pricing, each category shows on your statement at cost plus a disclosed markup; a flat rate charges the debit card and the premium card the same percentage.

How should a shop take repair approvals by phone?

Key the card into the virtual terminal while the customer is on the line, or text a payment link so they enter it themselves, and never write the number on the repair order. PCI SSC says card verification codes can't be stored after authorization, even encrypted, and a repair order with a code scribbled on it is storage. Write down the approval itself instead: the amount, the time and who took the call. If the customer later says they never agreed to the work, that note is your evidence.

Fleet accounts and regulars who want you to bill a card on file need to agree first, because Visa's stored credential rules require consent before you keep a card for later charges. Store the card with your payment provider, not on paper. Our guide to the credit card authorization form shows what to put in writing.

What to ask before you switch processors

• A written price for each card type and entry method: debit, rewards credit, dipped and keyed.
• Who owns the terminals, and whether they work with another processor. The FTC warns that a business can end up paying thousands to lease a terminal it could have bought for a few hundred dollars, and that such leases often can't be canceled.
• The contract term, and what it costs to leave.
• Your merchant category code, which tells the card networks what kind of business you run. Visa makes the acquirer responsible for assigning the right one (Visa).
• When deposits land. Clearo offers same-day or next-day funding options.
• Who answers when a terminal fails on a Saturday. Every Clearo client gets a dedicated rep.

Our free statement review takes one recent statement and shows your effective rate and how much of your volume was keyed instead of tapped. Our POS terminals and pricing pages have the rest.