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Stop Over-Complicating Credit Card Fees in Your Salon/Spa

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Yes, credit card processing fees suck.

So do utility bills, rent, insurance, and all the other expense line items on your Profit & Loss Statement. Credit card processing fees are one of those line items.

FACT 1: Credit card processing fees are a cost of doing business.

FACT 2: The global economy has been moving to cashless at a rapid pace.   Cashless is a reality — not a trend.

According to Forbes magazine, “Cashless is to the 2020s what the motorcar was to the 1920s — you don’t want to get stuck with just a faster horse."

The seemingly endless salon/spa debate on credit card fees misses the mark with these approaches:

  • Don’t accept credit cards.

  • Offer discounts for cash payments.

  • Add a surcharge on payments made by credit cards. (Some states have strict policies on surcharges and consumer awareness.)

  • Don’t allow tips on credit cards.

  • Put in an ATM


In response to restrictions on credit card usage, many owners say, “Our clients are fine with it.” Well, clients really don’t have a choice if they want services done.



We’re in the customer service industry. Our business is to serve and create extraordinary customer service experiences — not create service speed bumps and inconvenience.

Credit card processing fees were discussed in detail in a recent thread on our Strategies Salon/Spa Business Idea Exchange Facebook discussion group.

Responses were all over the place from adding surcharges and restricting credit card charges, to absorbing the cost and raising prices.

However, the one response/recommendation most often repeated was: “Adding a surcharge is nickel-and-diming clients … just raise your prices.”

At Strategies, we couldn’t agree more.

Here’s my challenge to you: There are costs to doing business that cannot be avoided or disguised … or simply passed along to clients as an add-on.

Prices on damn near everything are going up from lumber, groceries, and dining out, to cars/trucks, air travel, hotels, and all matter of services. Supply chains are strained and there are more job openings than applicants.

Credit card processing fees are not a major business expense. Factoring in both cash and credit card transactions, monthly processing fees account for approximately 2% to 3% of total revenue.

It won’t take much of a price increase to make credit card processing fees a non-issue.

For Team-Based Pay salons/spas, it’s an easy price adjustment.

It’s a little more complicated for commission salons/spas because any price increase means “a raise” for service providers. Making the price increase non-commissionable fixes that.

Lastly, as a consumer, I don’t like add-ons or surcharges. Likewise, I don’t like automatic tips added to my bill. Just tell me what the price is … not the price +++.



? Schedule a free 60-minute strategy session to start building your Team-Based salon, spa, or medspa … CLICK HERE

Comments (1)

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Posted By: free debit card•January 16th 2023, 5:09:00 am