You quote a $6,000 furnace replacement. The customer says yes, taps a card, and you move on to the next call. What you probably did not clock is that roughly $150 of that job just walked out the door in processing fees. On one install.
Now run that across a busy season. The number gets ugly fast. The good news is that HVAC is close to the perfect business for the one model that makes those fees disappear from your side of the ledger — surcharging. Here is the math, the rules, and the honest version of whether your customers will care.
The number nobody on the truck is looking at
Trades tickets are big. HVAC tickets are some of the biggest — anywhere from a few hundred bucks for a service call to $10,000-plus for a full system. That is exactly why processing fees bite harder for you than for a coffee shop.
A coffee shop pays a few cents of fee on a $5 latte. You pay a percentage of a five-figure install. Same rate, wildly different dollars. At a typical effective rate of around 2.5 per cent, here is the cost per job:
| Job | Ticket | Fee at ~2.5% |
|---|---|---|
| Service call | $400 | ~$10 |
| Repair | $1,800 | ~$45 |
| Furnace replacement | $6,000 | ~$150 |
| Full system install | $12,000 | ~$300 |
A company running $80,000 a month in card volume is handing over somewhere around $2,000 every single month. Roughly $24,000 a year. That is a service tech's wages, or a new van payment, gone to fees you never see itemized.
Why HVAC is almost the perfect surcharging business
Surcharging shifts the credit card fee to the customer who chooses to pay by credit. Some businesses cannot pull it off — if you sell $4 muffins, a surcharge feels petty and customers notice. HVAC is the opposite case, for three reasons:
- Big tickets, planned spend. Nobody impulse-buys a furnace. The customer already knows it is a major expense, so a small line for paying by credit barely registers.
- Plenty of other ways to pay. Debit, cheque, e-transfer. Customers who do not want the credit fee have easy options, and debit is never surcharged.
- You are already used to itemized quotes. Adding a clearly disclosed credit fee fits how trades already bill.
What surcharging actually is
Plain version: you list your price, and customers who choose to pay by credit card cover the processing fee with a small, clearly disclosed surcharge. On the surcharge model with Dough, your credit card processing cost is $0. Debit runs at a flat $0.04 per transaction. The fee that used to come out of your margin now sits with the person who chose the convenience of credit.
If you want the full mechanics, the Canadian guide to surcharging walks through every detail. For province-by-province depth, surcharging.ca covers the country.
The rules you have to follow
Surcharging is legal and common, but it is not a free-for-all. The rules that matter for you:
- Legal in every province except Quebec. Quebec restricts surcharging under its consumer protection law. Quebec shops use cash discount instead.
- Capped at 2.4 per cent. You can never surcharge more than your actual cost of acceptance, and never above the 2.4 per cent ceiling set by the card brands.
- Debit can never be surcharged. Interac, Visa Debit, Debit Mastercard — all exempt. Credit only.
- You have to disclose it. A sign at the counter or on the invoice, and a separate line on the receipt. No burying it.
- 30-day notice. You have to notify your processor before you switch a surcharge program on. Dough handles the signage and the compliance side so you are set up right.
"Will customers walk?" The honest answer
Some will grumble. Almost none will walk. When someone is already writing a cheque-sized number for a furnace, a clearly explained credit fee is not the thing that loses the job. The complaints that do happen come from surprise, not the fee itself. Put a sign up, train your installers to say one practiced line — "the price is the same on debit, cash, or e-transfer, and there's a small fee if you'd like to use credit" — and the friction mostly disappears.
And remember, you are not forcing anyone. The customer picks. Plenty choose debit and you both come out ahead.
If surcharging is not your fit
Maybe most of your work is residential service where you would rather not add anything at the door. That is fine — surcharging is one of three ways to get there. Interchange Plus keeps the fee on your side but cuts it close to the bone, with no customer-facing change at all. Dual pricing shows a cash price and a card price on the quote and lets the customer choose. Different tools, same goal: stop overpaying. The trades page lays out which setup tends to fit which kind of shop.
Common questions
Is it legal for HVAC companies to surcharge in Canada?
Yes, in every province except Quebec. The surcharge is capped at 2.4 per cent or your actual cost of acceptance, whichever is lower, and it has to be clearly disclosed at the point of sale and on the receipt.
Can I surcharge on debit?
No. Debit transactions cannot be surcharged in Canada — Interac, Visa Debit, and Debit Mastercard are all exempt. Surcharging applies to credit cards only. On Dough, debit runs at a flat $0.04 per transaction.
What is the most I can surcharge?
The cap is 2.4 per cent of the transaction, and you can never charge more than your actual cost of acceptance. Dough sets the rate correctly so you stay onside.
Do I have to tell my processor before I start?
Yes. There is a 30-day notice rule before activating a surcharge program. Dough handles the notice, the signage, and the compliance setup as part of getting you live.
Which terminal works best for an HVAC company?
The Clover Flex. It is wireless and handheld, so your techs can take payment at the truck or on the customer's doorstep, with chip, tap, and on-screen signatures. Pair it with Authorize.Net when you also invoice jobs online.
The TL;DR
- At HVAC ticket sizes, a 2.5 per cent fee is real money — roughly $150 on a $6,000 install, around $24,000 a year on $80K monthly volume.
- HVAC is close to the ideal surcharging business: big planned purchases, lots of payment options, already itemized billing.
- Surcharging moves the credit fee to the credit-paying customer. On Dough, your credit processing cost is $0 and debit is $0.04 flat.
- Rules: legal everywhere but Quebec, capped at 2.4 per cent, never on debit, must be disclosed, 30-day notice to your processor.
- Not a fit? Interchange Plus or dual pricing get you most of the way with no customer-facing surcharge.
Zachary at Dough
Founder of Dough Payments. Trades was the first vertical where the surcharging math jumped off the page for me - when your average ticket has four digits, every percentage point is a real number. Send me your statement and I will show you exactly what it is costing you now.