Worthd card-fee check for trades shops

Can you pass card fees to your customers?

A 3 to 15 person HVAC, plumbing or electrical shop paying about 2.9% on every card payment. Four tools say they can add a surcharge for you. Here is what each one really does, where it stops working, and what is left after the vendor's own cut.

Vendor pages checked Oct 8 and 9, 2026Reviewed by Worthd EditorialUS rules

The short answer

Housecall Pro is the only one of the four field-service tools with a built-in surcharge, and it keeps 0.50% of every surcharged payment. Jobber has no setting at all.

Housecall Pro caps the surcharge at 3% and lets you turn it on in invoice settings. Jobber's Product Team says it has no automated way to add one. Square and QuickBooks can add a surcharge, but only on some payment types: Square on its point of sale and web invoices, QuickBooks on online invoices only. All four exclude debit cards, and none work in Connecticut, Maine or Massachusetts.

Side by side

What each tool does with a card surcharge

Question	Housecall Pro	Jobber	Square	QuickBooks Payments
Built-in surcharge?	Yes: Settings, Invoice settings, Credit Card Surcharging	No setting. A Jobber Product Team reply (about a year old) says it has no automated way to add one	Yes, in open beta, US sellers	Yes, rolling out. If you do not see it, QuickBooks has not turned it on for you yet
Cap	3% maximum; lower state caps applied automatically	n/a	3% of the transaction; cannot exceed your cost of acceptance	Fixed rate you cannot change, not stated on the page; Oklahoma and Colorado cap at 2%
Where it works	Customer portal and web, mobile, card on file, service plans, booking deposits, in-person card entry	n/a	Square POS and Square Invoices on the web	Online invoice payments, including recurring invoices
Where it does not	Apple Pay and Google Pay are turned off while surcharging is on; not applied to ACH, PayPal, cash or check	n/a	Not on Square Appointments, Kiosk, Virtual Terminal or Website; no partial payments or mobile invoice payments	Not in-person or manual payments; Apple Pay, Amex and Discover blocked on surcharged invoices
Vendor's cut	0.50% fee on surcharged credit card transactions	n/a	None listed on the help article	Not stated
States closed	CT, ME, MA, NY, Canada	n/a	CT, ME, MA, PR; extra rules in CA, CO, FL, KS, NY, OK, TX	CT, ME, MA, PR
Debit and prepaid	Never surcharged	n/a	Credit only	Never surcharged

Plain-language summary of each vendor's help article as fetched Oct 8 and 9, 2026; the vendor's current page controls. Plan availability for Housecall Pro's setting is not stated on its article. Square's feature is described as in open beta.

What it nets

$10,000 a month on cards, worked out

Worthd arithmetic from published rates, not vendor figures. Assumes every dollar is a credit card payment in a state that allows surcharging:

Shop	What happens	Per month
Housecall Pro, 3% surcharge	Customers pay up to $300 extra. Housecall Pro keeps 0.50% of surcharged volume	About $250 kept (the page does not say if 0.50% applies to the payment or to the surcharge)
Jobber, no surcharge	Move payers to bank transfer: 1% instead of 2.9% + 30 cents	$500 invoice: $5.00 instead of $14.80, so $9.80 saved each time

Real recovery is lower: debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged, and some customers will pay by ACH or check instead. Jobber's rates are from its pricing page (card 2.9% + 30 cents, ACH 1%, checked Oct 9).

The card network rules

What Visa says you must do first

In the US the surcharge cannot exceed your cost of acceptance and is never more than 3% on Visa.
Debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged.
Tell your payment processor at least 30 days before you start.
Disclose it where the customer enters or agrees to pay, and show it as its own line on the receipt.

Mastercard has its own cap and says it is updating its rules, so Worthd does not state a number for it. Check Mastercard's current page before you set a rate.

Who this is wrong for

If most of your customers pay by check or bank transfer, or you work in Connecticut, Maine or Massachusetts, a surcharge will not help. If you already built the fee into your prices, adding one on top can lose jobs against quotes without it.

Also compare

Pricing the tools themselves? Read Jobber vs Housecall Pro, Jobber for 5 technicians and Housecall Pro for 3 technicians.

Sources

Vendor pages checked Oct 8 and 9, 2026

Housecall Pro: credit card surcharging FAQ
Square: set up and manage card surcharges
QuickBooks: add a surcharge to customer invoice payments (updated 8/25/2026)
Jobber Product Team reply on surcharges (about a year old, a forum reply rather than a help article; Jobber's pricing page does not mention surcharging)
Visa: Merchant Surcharging Considerations and Requirements (version 08142023)
Jobber pricing

Surcharge rules change often: check the vendor's current page and your state's law before you act. This is not legal advice. Report a correction.

See Housecall Pro See Jobber

Your crew size and card volume: run the Worthd cost calculator for a yearly total.

Want a heads-up when terms or prices change? Use the monthly Worthd Briefing signup at the bottom of this page.

How Worthd compares: Product fit, cost, setup work, and clear reasons to rule out an option shape the recommendation. Some links may earn Worthd a commission. Rankings are not for sale.