Losing Money to Credit Card Processing Fees? Here’s How to Fix It

Ever feel like your hard-earned revenue is slipping away? You’re not alone.

Credit card processing fees are an unavoidable part of doing business, but they can add up quickly—eating into profits and making it harder to grow. The good news? You don’t have to accept them at face value. With the right strategies and technology, you can minimize these costs and keep more of your hard-earned money.

In this guide, we’ll break down:

What credit card processing fees are, and how they work
How they can hurt your bottom line
Proven strategies to reduce these fees
How Gingr’s integrated payment solutions can help

Let’s dive in!

Understanding Credit Card Processing Fees

A woman holds a credit card while using a laptop as a dog sits next to her Before you can reduce credit card processing fees, you need to understand how they work.

What Are Credit Card Processing Fees?

Every time a customer pays with a credit card, several entities take a small cut of the transaction. While these fees vary by merchant, they fall anywhere from 1.5-3.5%. A few entities that credit card processing fees emanate from include:

Merchant account providers – These are companies that allow you to accept credit card payments.
Payment processors – The service that facilitates the transaction between the customer’s bank and your business.
Credit card networks – Brands like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express charge fees for using their networks.

How Credit Card Processing Fees Work

Processing fees typically fall into three categories:

Interchange Fees – Charged by the customer’s bank for processing the transaction.
Assessment Fees – Charged by the credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc.).
Payment Processor Markups – Fees added by your payment processor for handling the transaction.

Multiply these fees by dozens or even hundreds of transactions a day, and you can see how they impact your business.

How Credit Card Fees Can Hurt Your Pet Business

A man taps a credit card on a payment terminal in a pet store Credit card processing fees might seem small on an individual transaction, but over time, they can significantly impact your business’s profitability.

Eating into Your Profits

Every time a customer swipes their card, a percentage of the transaction goes to payment processors, banks, and credit card networks. For example, if you’re paying 2.5% on every $100 transaction, that’s $2.50 gone before you even see your earnings. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of transactions per month, and you can easily lose thousands of dollars annually to processing fees alone.

High Transaction Volume = More Fees

Pet-care businesses typically handle frequent, lower-value transactions, such as daycare visits, grooming services, and boarding reservations. While individual charges may not seem significant, the sheer volume of daily transactions means you’re paying fees over and over again. In contrast, businesses with fewer, high-ticket sales may not feel the impact of processing fees as intensely.

Hidden or Unexpected Fees

Beyond standard processing fees, many businesses get caught off guard by additional charges buried in payment processor agreements. These can include batch fees (for processing multiple transactions at once), chargeback fees (when customers dispute a charge), and PCI compliance fees (for maintaining security standards). If you’re not closely reviewing your monthly statements, you may be paying more than expected.

Passing Costs to Customers Can Hurt Sales

Some businesses attempt to offset processing fees by increasing prices or adding surcharges for credit card transactions. While this can help recoup costs, it may also deter customers—especially in a competitive market where price-sensitive pet parents have other options. Instead of absorbing or passing on these costs blindly, businesses need a smarter approach to reducing fees while keeping their services affordable and attractive to clients.

Strategies to Reduce Credit Card Processing Costs

You can’t avoid processing fees altogether, but you can reduce them. Here’s how:

Choose the Right Payment Processor

Not all payment processors charge the same rates. Look for:

Interchange-plus pricing (more transparent than flat-rate pricing)
No hidden fees for chargebacks, statements, or PCI compliance
Volume-based discounts if you process a high number of transactions

Optimize How You Accept Payments

Encourage debit card payments (lower fees than credit cards).
Set a minimum transaction amount for card payments to avoid paying fees on low-ticket sales.
Implement a cash discount program (offer a lower price for cash payments).

Enable Convenience Fees

Some businesses pass processing fees to customers through surcharges. However, this may not be legal in all states (check your local laws). A better alternative: Charge a convenience fee instead. This approach is:

More transparent – A set dollar amount is added to certain transactions.
Fair to customers – Only applies when a no-fee payment option (e.g., cash, debit, ACH) is available.
Easier to implement – Many payment processors allow for automated convenience fees, reducing manual work.

Turn Every Transaction into Savings with Gingr

Move past unpredictable fees in your pet-care operations. Gingr's brand new convenience fee feature allows your business to charge pet parents a small fee for using an alternative, more convenient payment method, such as using their card on file or manual card entry. Protect your margins and preserve payment flexibility seamlessly!

By choosing the right payment processor, optimizing payment methods, and leveraging automation, you can significantly reduce fees and keep more revenue in your business. Want to take it a step further? Gingr Payments is designed specifically for pet-care businesses, offering transparent pricing, built-in revenue-boosting tools, and seamless automation to make payment processing simple and profitable.