This article covers the upgraded Card Fee feature that Chariot rolled out to moving companies Jan-March 2025.

Chariot -- and any payment processor service -- charges merchants a processing fee on card payments processed through the system. This covers costs of processing payments which include "interchange" (the fees charged by card issuing banks like Chase, etc.), "dues and assessments" (the fees charged by card networks like Visa and Mastercard).

Many small businesses are interested in passing through these fees to their customers to cover the processing costs (and incentivize non-card payments). Chariot provides options for moving companies to do this seamlessly if they choose.

Note: This article does not constitute advice from a legal professional.

Before you start charging a card / convenience fee, we suggest talking to your attorney(s).

Some states do not allow merchants to pass through card / convenience fees, or if they do, require the fees to be communicated / shown very clearly to the customer. Some states do not technically allow adding a card fee to the bill, but allow discounts for non-card payments -- but this can be complicated in the moving industry by tariffs (price lists), which some moving companies need to file with their state / the DOT and sometimes cannot be discounted.

The Card networks -- like Visa and Mastercard -- also have their own terms of service for merchants. For example, most major card networks state that it's technically against their terms to pass through a fee to customers on debit card transactions (but it's OK on credit card transactions).

This is the newest implementation of the Card Fee feature. It's the best option for most moving companies because it allows you to easily pass through card fees in a completely automated way.

When the feature is on, you'll see a message / banner like this one on the Estimate and Results tabs for your jobs.

And anytime the customer is paying (via payment link, invoice, etc.), they'll see the card fee spelled out transparently on the payment page.

On the results tab, under payments, you'll an icon indicating that the card fee was added to the payment, and the amount.

This feature also makes it easy to handle situations where the customer wants to pay part of the bill by card, and the rest by another method. The card fee will only be applied to the payment/ portion that is made by card.

Maybe you want to pass through card fees but exclude them in specific situations -- for example for a particular repeat customer.

In that case, we can turn on a setting for your moving company that allows you to waive card fees on a per-job basis.

We can also set the feature to exclude debit card payments from having a card fee applied.

If this option is set up, customers will see the total payment amount if paying by card (with fee applied) or debit card (if fee is excluded).

This option ensures you're compliant with the card network rules, but means that you may incur costs from debit card payments (Chariot, like most processors like Stripe and Square, charges its flat processing fee on all cards; If you choose "interchange plus" (variable) pricing, your fees will be lower on debit card transactions but could be higher on some credit cards -- talk to our team if you have questions/ want to discuss).

If you prefer, you can use the feature that Chariot previously had for adding card fees -- simply checking a box to apply a card fee to any estimate or bill of your choosing.

This option may make sense for your moving company if you (1) apply your card fees on a case-by-case basis, (2) want as much control over when you pass through fees as possible, and/or (3) want the card fee to explicitly show on the customer's bill / invoice (in the newer version of the feature, the fee isn't part of the bill, just part of the payment).

We're happy to help talk through the best options for your team and clarify any questions.

Just reach out to support@chariotmove.com!