Most businesses process one-time transactions. Childcare centers are collecting the same payment from the same families, week after week or month after month, which means processing costs aren't a one-time hit. They're a permanent line item that scales with your enrollment.
What processing actually costs
A typical flat rate processing setup runs around 2.6% plus a small per-transaction fee. On a center collecting meaningful monthly tuition volume across dozens of families, and that number can add up. For a business already operating on thin margins, that's a meaningful chunk of revenue disappearing before it ever hits your account.
Some centers choose to pass part of that cost along to families through a surcharge. As of 2026, Visa and Mastercard cap surcharges at 3%, or your actual cost of processing, whichever is lower. A handful of states, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York, restrict or prohibit surcharging outright, so this isn't a decision to make without checking your specific state's rules first. Debit cards can't be surcharged under federal rules regardless of state.
How does it add up?
Processing fees are the visible cost. The less visible one is the time spent manually reconciling payments, chasing failed transactions, and matching deposits to family accounts by hand. Automated, integrated billing doesn't just reduce the fee itself, it reduces the hours a director or office manager spends every month making sure the numbers actually match.
Before you decide whether to absorb the fee or pass it along, run the actual numbers for your center. What you're paying in processing, the time billing takes for you and your staff, what a surcharge would look like for your families, and what your state actually allows.
Want to see what automated billing could save your center? Chat with one of our experts and get a clear picture of where your payment processing costs actually stand.
