I
Card processing leaves your expense column.
On day one, the merchant fee on every credit card transaction is added to the customer's total — disclosed, capped, and itemized on the receipt. Your gross becomes your net.
Apex / Vol. I · Issue 01A merchant services dossierApr 21, 2026
Compliant Surcharging Program · Est. 2024
Stop paying to get paid.
Apex Financial sets up a compliant surcharge program so the cost of accepting credit cards moves from your P&L to the customer's receipt — fully disclosed, network-registered, and capped at your actual cost. You keep the entire ticket.
Specimen · Customer receipt
The Forge Plumbing Co.
Service invoice · #20418
Date
Mar 14, 2026
Furnace install — labor & parts$4,184.00
State tax (8.25%)$345.18
Subtotal$4,529.18
Credit card processing (3.0%)$135.88
Total charged · credit$4,665.06
Pay by debit or ACH to skip$0.00 fee
Specimen receipt — surcharge fully disclosed at invoicing per Visa/Mastercard rule.
~3%Of credit card volume returned to your bottom line
48 statesWhere compliant surcharging is permitted
0 bpNet cost on credit transactions, post-program
Compliant surcharge program · network registeredVisa · Mastercard · Discover · AmexCredit-card-only · debit & ACH stay freeCapped at cost or 3.0%Counter signage + POS-line disclosureSame-day funding · tokenized recurringCompliant surcharge program · network registeredVisa · Mastercard · Discover · AmexCredit-card-only · debit & ACH stay freeCapped at cost or 3.0%Counter signage + POS-line disclosureSame-day funding · tokenized recurring
§ 01Principles
Three things that move the moment surcharging goes live.
II
Debit, ACH, and cash stay free for your customer.
Surcharging is credit-card-only by network rule. Customers who prefer to avoid the fee tap their debit card or pay another way. You don't lose sales — you give the choice.
III
We carry the compliance, not you.
Network registration with Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and Amex; state-by-state legality; cap math against your true cost; signage at the counter and at checkout. Apex handles the program, you handle your business.
§ 02Industries
Built for two verticals where 3% is real money.
We built Apex around operators whose margins are eaten by card costs — the trades, where a single ticket can be five figures, and food & hospitality, where a single point of margin is the difference between paying staff and not.
§ 01
→Home Services
On a $12,000 furnace install, surcharging recovers $360.
HVAC · Plumbing · Electrical · Roofing
§ 02
→Food & Hospitality
On a $300K month, surcharging keeps ~$7,200 in the till.
Full-service · QSR · Bars · Cafes · Hotels
§ 03
→Auto Repair & Accessories
Transmission rebuild at $4,800? That's $144 back, every job.
Service bays · Tires · Audio · Custom · Body
§ 03How it works
From statement to surcharge live, in four weeks.
Week 01
Cost of acceptance audit
Send your last three processor statements. We compute your true cost-of-acceptance — the legal ceiling on the surcharge — and confirm your state permits the program.
Week 02
Program design
We set the surcharge percentage (at or below your cost, capped at 3%), draft the customer-facing language, and prepare network registration with Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and Amex.
Week 03
Stack & signage
Terminals, gateway, online checkout, and POS are configured to itemize the fee on the receipt. We deliver counter signage and an FAQ for your front-of-house team.
Week 04
Go live
Program goes live on the first of the month. We monitor the first batch, confirm compliant disclosure, and stand by for the customer questions you'll get for the first two weeks.
§ 04In their words
We took 3% off our largest expense line by adding one item to the receipt. Customers asked about it for a week. Then they stopped asking. The recovery hasn't.
Owner-operator · Multi-location restaurant group · Illustrative composite
§ 05Next steps
Calculate what you'd recover. Then we'll do the rest.
The Recovery Calculator gives you a directional number in sixty seconds. The written analysis arrives in 48 hours. Going live takes about four weeks.