Card Processing Fees for Cleaning Businesses (2026)

Card processing fees for a cleaning business run from 2.5% to 3.5% of each payment plus up to 30 cents, as of October 23, 2026, which is $3.75 to $5.40 on a $150 visit. A bank transfer costs $1.20 to $1.50. The headline rate matters less than where the payment happens: inside your scheduling software it lands on the visit record; outside it, you match it by hand.

This guide is for any size of cleaning business that takes cards. It explains how the fees are built, compares the published rates of Square, Stripe, Jobber, Housecall Pro, and QuickBooks Payments, works out the dollar cost on a $150 visit, and covers what the card networks say about passing the fee on. For the wider question of when to get paid and how to chase late invoices, read the invoicing guide.

How do card processing fees work?

Every card fee is a percentage of the payment plus, at most providers, a fixed amount per transaction, and the percentage depends on how the card is taken. The three cases that matter for a cleaning business are:

• In person, tapped or dipped on a reader or a phone: the lowest rate, because the card is present.
• Online or by invoice, where the client types the card into a payment page: a higher rate, because the card is not present.
• Card on file or keyed in by you, where a saved card is charged after the visit or you type the number: usually the highest rate, because the processor takes on the most risk.

Bank transfers (ACH) are a separate and much cheaper category, usually 0.8% to 1% with a cap or a minimum. For recurring residential work the common pattern is a card on file charged after each visit, which means a business that charges saved cards is paying the highest card rate on most of its revenue, often without noticing. Moving recurring clients to bank payment, where they are comfortable with it, is the single biggest lever on fees.

Two costs that do not show on the rate card: instant payouts, which every provider charges extra for, and disputes, where some providers charge a fee per chargeback whether or not you win (Stripe charges $15 per dispute; Square charges no chargeback fee). Neither is large for a cleaning business that documents its visits, but both are worth knowing.

Which provider charges what?

The table shows the published rates as of October 23, 2026. Where a vendor publishes a single card rate rather than a rate by payment type, the same figure appears in each column.

Prices verified October 23, 2026 against the vendor pages listed under Sources checked.

Three notes on reading it. Stripe’s rates apply when a cleaning app processes through Stripe: ZenMaid and Maidily both state Stripe or Square as their processors on their pricing pages, and you pay that processor’s standard rate with no markup stated by either app. BookingKoala connects to Stripe, Square, PayPal (via Braintree), or Authorize.net, one processor at a time, and its help center states that it adds no fees of its own on transactions; the processor’s own rates apply. Housecall Pro publishes its rates by payment method in its help center: 2.59% in person, 2.99% on an invoice paid online, and 3.49% on a card on file or keyed card, with American Express and business cards at 3.49% by any method. Square’s lower Plus and Premium rates come with a paid subscription, which only pays off at volume.

What does a $150 visit cost with each?

The arithmetic is the same every time: multiply the visit price by the percentage, then add the fixed amount. At Square’s free-plan invoice rate, $150 times 3.3% is $4.95, plus 30 cents, is $5.25. The table applies that to every published rate.

Prices verified October 23, 2026 against the vendor pages listed under Sources checked.

The spread between the cheapest and most expensive card method is about $1.65 per visit. On 60 visits a month that is roughly $100, which is real money but less than most software subscriptions. The spread between an online or card-on-file payment and a bank transfer is about $3 to $4 per visit, or $180 to $240 a month at the same volume. That is the number to act on.

To see what the fee does to your price, the Cleaning Price Calculator has a card fee field: enter your fee percentage and it grosses the price up so the fee comes out of the price rather than your earnings. To see what it does to a client’s lifetime value, enter the per-visit fee as part of direct cost in the Client Value Calculator.

Should payments run inside your scheduling app or through a separate processor?

Inside the scheduling app, for recurring residential work. The rates are within a few tenths of a percent of each other, and what changes with a built-in processor is everything around the payment: the card on file is charged from the visit record (automatically when the visit is marked complete on most tools; ZenMaid charges saved cards when you run a charge or a bulk charge), the receipt goes out from the same system that sent the reminder, tips are attached to the right cleaner, and the month’s revenue report is already reconciled. Jobber and Housecall Pro run their own payments; ZenMaid, Maidily, and BookingKoala connect to Stripe or Square and pull the payment status back into the visit.

A separate processor makes sense in three cases. You are not using scheduling software yet, in which case Square’s free plan is the simplest way to take a card. You do one-time and commercial jobs that live outside the recurring schedule and want a proper invoice with terms. Or you are on a scheduling tool without payments and do not want to switch yet. In each case the cost is not the rate; it is matching payments to visits by hand at month end. The best scheduling software guide covers which tools include payments by plan, and the invoicing app comparison covers the standalone options.

Can you pass the fee to the customer?

Sometimes, under rules set by the card networks and by your state, and this article is not legal advice. Visa’s small business page states that merchants must notify their acquirer 30 days before they begin surcharging, and both Visa and Mastercard publish surcharge requirements covering caps, disclosure at the point of sale and on the receipt, and card types that cannot be surcharged; several states also restrict or prohibit surcharges. The exact rules are in the networks’ own documents: Visa’s regulations and fees page links its surcharging requirements, and Mastercard publishes its own on its merchant surcharge rules page. When we last read that page, on September 13, 2026, it listed notice to Mastercard and to your acquirer at least 30 days before you start, a cap at the lesser of your average effective merchant discount rate and Mastercard’s maximum surcharge cap, and surcharges on credit cards only (not debit or prepaid). Separately, it said Mastercard was not requiring merchants to register their intent to surcharge on its website while it updates that process. A pause in that website registration step is not the same as dropping the notice requirements, so do not read one as the other. Mastercard’s pages did not load for us on October 23, 2026, so these Mastercard points are as of September 13, 2026; check Mastercard’s current page, and ask your processor what notice it needs, before you start. Your processor also has to support surcharging on your account, and not all do.

For most small cleaning businesses the simpler route is to build the fee into the price, which the Cleaning Price Calculator does, and to offer bank payment as the cheaper option for clients who ask. A separate “convenience fee” line on an invoice is the thing most likely to create a complaint or break a rule, so if you want to pass fees on, ask your processor what it allows and check your state’s rules before you start.

Key takeaways

• Card fees on a $150 cleaning visit run $3.75 to $5.40 depending on provider and method, and a bank transfer costs $1.20 to $1.50, as of October 23, 2026.
• Card on file, the common method for recurring clients, is usually the most expensive card rate; moving recurring clients to bank payment saves $3 to $4 per visit.
• Square Free (3.3% + 30¢ on invoices), Stripe and Jobber (2.9% + 30¢ online), Housecall Pro (2.99% on invoices paid online), and QuickBooks Payments (2.99% on invoices) are within about $1.65 per visit of each other on cards.
• Running payments inside your scheduling app matters more than the rate, because it attaches the payment to the visit automatically.
• Passing the fee on is governed by card network rules and state law; notify your processor, check the rules, or price the fee in instead.