Payments for Kitchen & Bath: What Stripe, Square, and the Big Processors Actually Cost You

Kitchen-and-bath money moves in lumps: a $2,500 design retainer, a $15,000 cabinet deposit, a $45,000 project collected across phases. Stripe, Square, Adyen, Chase, Fiserv, Global Payments, and Worldpay priced for coffee shops — and none of them has ever written about what 2.9% does to a $15,000 cabinet deposit. We ran their published rates against real kitchen-and-bath ticket sizes, rates checked October 2026. Also see Kitchen & Bath Specialists, AI for Kitchen & Bath, and Tech for Kitchen & Bath.

The fee table: what each processor actually charges you

Published rates, checked October 2026. Square: 2.6% + $0.15 in person, roughly 2.9–3.3% + $0.30 online depending on plan, ~3.5% + $0.15 card-on-file/keyed. Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 online, 2.7% + $0.05 in person, 3.4% + $0.30 stored cards. Interchange-plus: about 0.3% over interchange. ACH: about $5 flat.

$2,500 design retainer: Stripe online $72.80. Square in person $65.15. Interchange-plus roughly $45–$60. ACH about $5.

$15,000 cabinet deposit: Stripe online $435.30. Square in person $390.15. Interchange-plus roughly $240–$300. ACH about $5.

$45,000 project (total card-collected): Stripe online $1,305.30. Square in person $1,170.15. Interchange-plus roughly $730–$900. ACH about $5.

The cabinet-deposit row is the one that should make you wince: cabinet manufacturers typically want 50% upfront with a 10-week lead time — meaning you're fronting or floating $15,000 for two and a half months, and flat-rate processing skims $435 off the top for the privilege of moving your own deposit. Run deposits and phase payments by ACH and the whole $45,000 project costs about $25 to collect.

The workflow checklist the big processors fail

• Design retainers that convert. The $2,500 retainer needs to be collected at booking, credited to the project automatically, and refundable per your written policy — not your processor's. Generic payment links don't track "credited to project."
• Cabinet deposits with 10-week lead times. You're collecting $15,000 months before install. The deposit needs a written agreement attached, a production timeline communicated, and a payment method that doesn't eat $435. None of the big processors connects the deposit to the lead-time communication.
• Templating-triggered payments. "Due at countertop templating" is a milestone only your project software knows. Generic processors can't trigger on it; you end up manually invoicing every milestone.
• Phased installs, phased payments, full chaos. Demo, cabinets, templating, counters, plumbing reconnect, final — six phases, six invoices, one running balance the client can see. The big processors give you six disconnected receipts.
• Financing as a close tool. A $45,000 kitchen with a 12-month 0%-APR option closes against the competitor who only takes checks. Wisetack, Hearth, Service Finance — the big processors don't play here.
• Change orders at install. The upgraded range hood, the extra cabinet, the backsplash change — billable same-day by link, attached to the project. Generic invoicing makes every change a new manual chore.

The honest verdict on each processor

• Square: fine for the showroom — in-person retainer collection, small accessory sales. Run a $15,000 cabinet deposit through it and you've paid for a nice faucet in fees. And the account-freeze pattern applies: a $15,000 deposit after months of $200 showroom sales looks exactly like the outlier Square's risk model pounces on.
• Stripe: excellent API, wrong default. No phase schedules, no retainer-to-project crediting, no templating triggers — 2.9% on everything, which on a $45,000 project is $1,305 for the privilege of a generic checkout.
• Adyen: enterprise infrastructure. Your cabinet line doesn't need Adyen.
• Chase Payment Solutions: convenient with a Chase operating account; otherwise a quote-based black box with zero kitchen-and-bath awareness.
• Fiserv/Clover, Global Payments, Worldpay: the quote maze. Interchange-plus is in there if you negotiate hard. None of them will ever write the phrase "templating-triggered payment."

The setup that actually fits: card (interchange-plus, not flat) for design retainers and small change orders, ACH for every deposit and phase payment, financing offered at the proposal. ClaroPro.ai runs the collection side — retainers at booking, phase invoices on milestone, payment links by text — over processing priced for $15,000 deposits, not $15 lattes.

Notes from Finix's public docs: ACH, card-on-file, surcharging

Finix's public docs map cleanly onto the kitchen-and-bath money flow:

• ACH for deposits and phases. The $15,000 cabinet deposit and every phase payment cost about $5 by ACH. Finix documents ACH origination with timing and returns handling — relevant when a deposit bounces the same week the cabinet order is due to the manufacturer.
• Card on file via tokenization. Vault the card at design-retainer time; charge the retainer now, the templating milestone later, the final balance at install complete — all without the client re-entering anything. The final 10% stops being a chase.
• Surcharging, legally. Credit only, disclosed upfront, capped around 3%, state rules varying. On a $15,000 deposit, a compliant surcharge recovers ~$450. Or quote the "3% ACH discount" — same math, happier clients.
• Invoicing and payment-link primitives. Finix documents tokenized cards, ACH, and hosted payment flows as building blocks — the infrastructure a phase-billing system stands on. Software built on this instead of a flat-rate aggregator cuts your per-phase cost by two-thirds or more.

Bottom line: Finix is infrastructure pricing for infrastructure work — moving $15,000 deposits and $45,000 projects without the coffee-shop tax.

The deposit-to-final playbook

How a tight kitchen-and-bath shop moves $45,000 without financing the client's project:

• At booking: the design retainer, automatically. The consultation isn't on the calendar until the $1,500–$3,000 retainer clears. No retainer, no free design — the policy enforces itself.
• At cabinet order: the 50% deposit by ACH. The $15,000 deposit costs about $5 to collect and arrives before the manufacturer needs it. The written agreement and the production timeline go out with the deposit receipt — one email, no "where are my cabinets" later.
• At templating: the milestone invoice. "Due at countertop templating" was in the contract; the invoice references it. Another ACH, another $5.
• At install complete: the balance. Card on file (tokenized at retainer time) or ACH link texted at walkthrough — the client's choice, your money either way.
• Change orders: same-day, every time. The upgraded hood, the extra cabinet — invoiced before the installer leaves, while the client's still excited about the upgrade.

Total processing cost on the $45,000 project: roughly $25 in ACH fees plus the retainer's card fee. The flat-rate alternative was $1,305. That $1,280 difference is a dishwasher — yours, not the processor's.

FAQ

What's the cheapest way to take a $15,000 cabinet deposit? ACH — about $5. You're holding the money for 10 weeks before install anyway; 3–5 day settlement is irrelevant and the $435 card fee is not.

Should I surcharge phase payments? Where legal, yes — credit only, disclosed upfront. Most kitchen-and-bath shops do better with the "3% discount for ACH or check" framing; it nudges clients to the $5 rail without a fee conversation.

Do I need financing if most clients pay cash? The clients who pay cash weren't the question. Financing is for the ones choosing between you and the cheaper bid — a 0%-APR option keeps the $45,000 project instead of losing it to a $32,000 compromise.

Can I take the design retainer by card? Yes — it's the one payment where card convenience is worth it. Tokenize the card at the same time and you've also solved the final-balance collection.

The rule: card for the design retainer, ACH for deposits and every phase, financing on every proposal over $20,000 — never flat-rate on cabinet deposits. Then read Tech for Kitchen & Bath: the right stack turns lead times, templating windows, and phased installs from juggling into a system.