Payments for Gutter Contractors: What Stripe, Square, and the Big Processors Actually Cost You

The short version: gutters are a small-ticket, high-volume business, which flips the usual payments advice upside down. The percentage rate barely matters; the per-transaction fixed fee is the whole game. Stripe's $0.30 online fee is double Square's $0.15 in-person fee — on a $200 cleaning, that's the difference between a good processor and a bad one. Here's the math at your ticket sizes, with published rates checked October 2026. Also see Gutters, AI for Gutter Companies, and Tech for Gutter Companies.

The fee table: what each processor actually charges you

Published rates, checked October 2026. Square: 2.6%+$0.15 in-person, 2.9%+$0.30 online, 3.5%+$0.15 keyed/stored. Stripe: 2.7%+$0.05 in-person, 2.9%+$0.30 online, 3.4%+$0.30 stored. Interchange-plus (typical ISO contractor pricing): ~0.3% markup over interchange.

$200 gutter cleaning (reader on-site): Square $5.35 · Stripe $5.45 · Interchange-plus ~$4.40

$200 gutter cleaning (invoice link): Square $6.10 · Stripe $6.10 · Interchange-plus ~$4.70

$450 install (reader on-site): Square $11.85 · Stripe $12.20 · Interchange-plus ~$9.90

$450 install (invoice link): Square $13.35 · Stripe $13.35 · Interchange-plus ~$10.20

$1,800 full-house install + guards (online): Square $52.50 · Stripe $52.50 · Interchange-plus ~$39.60 · ACH (0.8%, capped at $5) $5.00

$1,800 job (reader died, keyed in): Square $63.15 · Stripe $61.50 · Interchange-plus ~$46

Notice what the table is really saying: at gutter ticket sizes, the fixed fee dominates. Square's $0.15 in-person fee beats Stripe's $0.30 online fee by $0.15 a transaction — at 1,500 jobs a year, that's $225 just for using the reader instead of the link. At volume: 1,500 jobs a year at $450 = $675,000. Square in-person: ~$17,775/year. Interchange-plus: ~$14,850/year. Difference: ~$2,925/year — a month of the seamless machine's coil. The rails underneath are the same for everyone — Finix builds that payment infrastructure; the table above is what the brands charge to ride it.

The hidden row: keyed-in transactions. The reader dies on a ladder, the tech keys the card: Square jumps to 3.5%+$0.15. On a $1,800 guards job that's $63.15 vs $52.50 — $10.65 for a dead battery. Carry a backup reader; it's the cheapest payments hardware you'll ever buy.

The workflow checklist the big processors fail

• Card-on-completion, every ticket. The payment moment is the driveway, not the office. The reader has to work from a ladder, in rain, with gloves — if the flow needs the office, the invoice ages.
• Reader-first pricing. At your ticket sizes, the $0.15 in-person fixed fee vs $0.30 online is real money at 1,500 transactions. The processor decision is really a channel decision: maximize card-present.
• Text-to-pay for the stragglers. The 10% of jobs where nobody was home — text the invoice link same-day. Same-day text beats next-week mail by 20 days of float.
• Card-on-file for cleanings. Twice-yearly gutter cleaning on a stored card: the customer never thinks about it, you never chase it. Stored-card rates are higher (Square 3.5%+$0.15, Stripe 3.4%+$0.30) — but a $200 cleaning collected automatically beats a $200 cleaning chased for 60 days.
• ACH for the big installs. The $1,800 guards job: $5 by ACH vs $52.50 by card. Offer it on anything over $1,000.
• Surcharging — probably skip it. On a $200 cleaning, the surcharge math annoys the customer more than it saves you. Surcharging makes sense at $5,000+ tickets; at gutter tickets it's a customer-experience tax. Most states allow it, Connecticut and Massachusetts restrict it — but "can" isn't "should" here.
• No-show protection. Card at booking for cleanings. A $200 cleaning with a no-show costs you the route slot, not just the revenue.

The big processors' pages talk about "accepting payments." None of them talk about the reader surviving a ladder.

The honest verdict on each processor

Square: the best default for gutter shops. The reader is cheap, the $0.15 in-person fixed fee is the lowest in the business at your ticket sizes, and text-to-pay works. The catch: keep tickets card-present — keyed-in jumps to 3.5% — and don't run $5,000+ guard jobs through a new account without underwriting.

Stripe: the $0.30 online fixed fee is a quiet tax at gutter ticket sizes — $0.15 more than Square in-person on every transaction. Fine if you're already on Stripe for the website; not worth switching to.

Adyen: built for enterprises doing millions. A gutter shop is a rounding error to them. Skip.

Chase Payment Solutions, Fiserv, Global Payments/Worldpay: their interchange-plus pricing beats Square once you're over ~$500k in card volume — roughly 1,100 jobs at $450. Below that, Square's simplicity wins. Above that, get a quote; the per-transaction savings are real at your volume.

The gutter answer is refreshingly simple: Square with the reader for everything under $1,000, ACH offered on everything over $1,000, interchange-plus when you cross ~$500k in card volume. Nobody needs to overthink this — the fixed fee is the whole game, and the game is won at the reader.

How a gutter company actually wires this up: notes from Finix's public docs

ClaroPro handles voice-to-invoice — the job gets dictated at the truck, the invoice texts out. The money movement is where Finix's public docs (docs.finix.com) get practical for high-volume small tickets. What to look for:

• Payment links at volume. Docs cover generating per-job payment links programmatically — 30 invoices a day without 30 manual sends. The link goes out with the finished-photo text automatically.
• Card-on-file for cleaning plans. Tokenization guides cover storing the card at the first cleaning and charging the spring and fall visits automatically — the stored-card rate is higher, but the collected revenue is 100% vs. chased.
• Fee profiles that respect small tickets. Their fee-profile documentation shows how per-transaction pricing is structured — the mechanism that keeps the fixed fee low when the percentage barely matters.
• ACH for guard installs. Bank-transfer guides with the $5-cap math — the $1,800 guards job where the card fee is the entire profit on the upsell.
• Webhooks per job. Payment events that mark each $400 ticket paid in the scheduler the second it lands — so the route board, not the office, knows the day is closed.

At gutter volume, the architecture is the margin: every ticket billed at the curb, every cleaning on a stored card, every big install nudged to ACH. That's 1,500 transactions a year with almost no office touching them.

FAQ

Square or Stripe for a gutter company? Square — the $0.15 in-person fixed fee beats Stripe's $0.30 online fee on every small ticket, and the reader is built for the driveway. Rates checked October 2026.

Should I surcharge on $400 jobs? Probably not. The savings are pennies per ticket and the friction is real. Save surcharging for the $1,800+ guard installs — and check your state: Connecticut and Massachusetts restrict it.

What's the cheapest way to take a $1,800 guards payment? ACH: $5 flat vs $52.50 by card. Offer it first, card second.

How do I stop keyed-in fees? Carry a backup reader in every truck. The $49 reader pays for itself the first time the primary dies on a ladder — one avoided keyed-in $1,800 transaction saves $10+.

This month: put the reader in every truck with a backup, move guard-install payments over $1,000 to ACH, and put cleanings on stored cards. Then read Tech for Gutter Companies — the scheduler that packs the route tight is the other half of the $400-ticket business.