Credit Card Processing for Pool Service Companies: What to Know

Online payments can make pool service billing easier, but customers need to know what they will pay before they choose a payment method. This guide explains PoolDial's U.S. card and ACH Direct Debit pricing, how processing-fee pass-through works, and why paying from a bank account through Link does not always mean an ACH-rate payment.

How PoolDial's Card Processing Fees Work

For standard U.S. card payments, PoolDial's combined processing rate is 3.2% + $0.30. These fees are separate from your PoolDial subscription. On a $160 card charge, the processing cost is $5.42 and your business receives $154.58 when you absorb the fee.

Card Charge	Card Fee (3.2% + $0.30)	You Keep	Cost for 12 Charges
$120.00	$4.14	$115.86	$49.68
$160.00	$5.42	$154.58	$65.04
$200.00	$6.70	$193.30	$80.40

These examples assume the invoice amount is the amount charged and your business absorbs processing costs. Stripe and PoolDial fee portions are rounded separately to the nearest cent. They do not include separate charges such as disputes, currency conversion, or other account-specific Stripe fees.

ACH Direct Debit: 1.1% with a Cap on Stripe's Portion

ACH Direct Debit lets eligible U.S. customers pay from a U.S. bank account. PoolDial's processing formula is 0.8% to Stripe, capped at $5, plus 0.3% to PoolDial with no cap. That is 1.1% on payments up to $625; above that amount, the formula is $5 plus 0.3%. The combined fee is not capped at $5.

On a $160 ACH charge, the processing fee is $1.76: $1.28 for Stripe and $0.48 for PoolDial. On a $1,000 ACH charge, it is $8: Stripe's capped $5 plus PoolDial's $3. These are processing costs before any separate bank-verification, return, dispute, or expedited-settlement charges that may apply under your Stripe account's pricing. See Stripe's bank-payment pricing for its fees.

Availability matters. ACH needs to be enabled in PoolDial and approved by Stripe for your connected account. Turning on a setting alone does not guarantee customers can use it. Check an invoice in your customer portal before advertising the ACH rate. If bank payments are unavailable or the fee looks wrong, contact PoolDial support before asking customers to pay.

ACH payments take time to confirm and can fail after a customer submits them. A submitted bank payment is not the same as a completed payment. Payout timing also depends on your account and bank. See Stripe's ACH Direct Debit documentation.

Why a Bank Account in Link Can Show a Different Fee

Stripe Link can offer Instant Bank Payments, which is a different product from ACH Direct Debit. Selecting a checking account inside Link does not by itself select PoolDial's lower-fee ACH payment option. Stripe explains this distinction in its Instant Bank Payments documentation.

When processing-fee pass-through and approved ACH are both enabled, the PoolDial customer portal offers separate Pay by Bank Account and Pay by Card choices with their respective totals. Choose the bank-account option there for ACH. Selecting a bank account later inside a card checkout does not recalculate the processing-fee line item already added to that checkout.

Should You Pass the Processing Fee to Customers?

You can absorb processing costs in your service price or use PoolDial's processing-fee pass-through setting where permitted. Before passing fees on, confirm the applicable payment-network rules and local requirements for the payment methods you accept. Explain the fee and available alternatives before the customer pays.

The difference comes from calculating fees on the final amount charged, including the added fee. It is not simply 3.2% + $0.30 or 1.1% of the original invoice. Review the final total for the selected method before confirming payment.

Use our service price calculator to include processing costs in your service pricing. For recurring card payments, see the guide to setting up autopay.

Getting Started with Online Payments

1. Connect Stripe. Complete the business and bank-account information requested in PoolDial's payment setup.
2. Confirm your payment methods. Check that card processing is ready. If you want ACH, confirm Stripe has approved it and the bank-payment option appears in the customer portal.
3. Choose how to handle fees. Decide whether your business absorbs processing costs or passes them through where permitted, and communicate that choice to customers.
4. Review the customer experience. Open a customer invoice and check the available methods and totals. Do not promise the ACH rate for every payment funded by a bank account.

Keeping Payment Details Secure

Have customers enter payment details in the secure Stripe payment flow. Do not collect card or bank-account numbers by text, email, or spreadsheet. PoolDial's customer portal gives customers a place to view invoices and manage their billing.

See It in Action: PoolDial Billing

PoolDial's billing tools bring invoices, payment tracking, and card-on-file billing into the same workflow. Confirm the payment methods available to your business before setting expectations with customers.