TL;DR
For independent auto repair, tire, and body shops running up to about $60K in monthly card volume, Helcim wins on interchange-plus pricing with no monthly fee and automatic volume discounts. Stax pulls ahead above about $60K monthly on steady volume, when its subscription ($199 or more a month above $250,000 a year) costs less than Helcim's markup. Square fits sub-$25K shops that need a free counter POS and a phone reader. Dealerships and multi-location chains should skip the round-up and negotiate IC++ directly with a custom acquirer.
How we ranked
Automotive shops are not retail. Repair tickets often run into the hundreds of dollars, collision work runs higher, and fleet accounts pay with commercial cards. That mix changes which processor is cheapest. We scored each provider on six criteria:
- Effective rate at $150K monthly volume assuming 75 percent card-present, 15 percent keyed (phone authorizations), and 10 percent online deposits or parts sales, with a hypothetical $400 average ticket. For interchange-plus providers we use our cost engine's interchange estimate (1.55 percent in person, 1.70 percent online); fleet and corporate cards cost more.
- Contract length and early termination fee. Month-to-month beats a 36-month lease every time.
- Funding speed. Parts vendors want payment the same week the work is closed.
- Level 2 and Level 3 data support. Fleet, government, and corporate cards qualify for lower interchange when the processor passes line-item data, per the Visa interchange schedule and Mastercard interchange rates.
- Hardware and shop-management software integration. Tekmetric and Shopmonkey sell their own built-in payments that post to the repair order, and AutoLeap says it integrates with Global Payments.
- Dispute SLA and reserve policy. A single chargeback on a $4,000 transmission rebuild hurts a small shop's cash flow.
At a glance
Headline pricing from each provider's public schedule, prices checked Oct 2026. Effective rates depend on your card mix; see the Helcim section for the math at a $150K monthly auto shop.
| Provider | Headline pricing | Contract | Settlement | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helcim | IC + 0.40% + $0.08 in-person | No contract | Next business morning | Independent shops up to about $60K monthly | Check shop-software support |
| Stax | $99 to $199+/mo by annual volume + IC + $0.08 in-person | No cancellation fee stated; length not published | Next business day | Steady shops above about $60K monthly | Subscription is dead weight below $40K |
| Payment Depot | Interchange-plus by quote; no prices listed | No cancellation fees; $0 setup | Not published | Mid-volume shops that want a quote | Full cost not public |
| Square | 2.6% + $0.15 in-person, 3.5% + $0.15 keyed | None | Next business day | Sub-$25K independents, mobile | Highest in-person rate in our engine |
| Clover | Software $0 to $89.95+/mo + 2.3% to 2.6% + $0.10 | 36-month hardware subscriptions | 1 to 3 days | Shops wanting integrated POS | Tier pricing, hardware lock-in |
| Stripe | Online 2.9% + $0.30, in-person 2.7% + $0.05 | None | 2 business days | Shops with online parts and booking | Few shop-management integrations |
Helcim
Helcim's published rate is interchange plus 0.40 percent and $0.08 for card-present, interchange plus 0.50 percent and $0.25 for online, with no monthly fee and no contract (helcim.com/pricing). The markup steps down automatically at $50K, $100K, $500K, and $1M a month, so a shop above $100K pays interchange plus 0.25 percent and $0.07 in person without renegotiating.
Ask Helcim how it passes Level 2 and Level 3 data, which matters if fleet and corporate cards are a real share of your volume. The Helcim Card Reader costs $199 and the virtual terminal is included; keyed phone authorizations are charged the online rate. Deposits arrive the next business morning at no cost.
A hypothetical $150K monthly shop with 75 percent card-present, 15 percent keyed, 10 percent online and a $400 average ticket runs about 1.89 percent on Helcim, roughly $2,832 a month, on our interchange estimate. Stax comes in at about 1.74 percent, $2,617 including a $199 subscription. Square's best plan at that volume (Premium, $149 a month: 2.4 percent plus $0.15 in person, 3.5 percent plus $0.15 keyed, 2.9 percent plus $0.30 online) costs about $4,133, or 2.76 percent. The Square to Helcim gap is about $1,300 a month, roughly $15,600 a year on a single rooftop.
Skip Helcim if you want payments built into your shop-management software. Tekmetric and Shopmonkey sell their own built-in payments that post to the repair order, and AutoLeap says it integrates with Global Payments.
Stax
Stax is a subscription model: $99 a month up to $150,000 a year in volume, $139 from $150,000 to $250,000, and $199 or more above that, and you pay interchange plus $0.08 in-person, interchange plus $0.15 online (staxpayments.com/pricing). There is no percentage markup, only the per-transaction fee and the membership.
The math works the moment your subscription divided by volume drops below the Helcim markup. At $80K monthly ($960,000 a year) the fee is $199 or more, about 0.25 percent of volume, below Helcim's 0.35 percent card-present markup at that volume. On our estimates the two cross at about $60K a month. At $200K monthly the subscription is about 0.10 percent of volume and Stax beats every flat-rate processor by a wide margin; at $250K our engine has Stax at $4,475 a month in person against $4,850 for Helcim.
Ask Stax which shop-management platforms it connects to and whether it passes Level 2 and Level 3 data. Its pricing page states no cancellation fees but does not publish a contract length, so get the term in writing.
Skip Stax if you run under $40K monthly. The $1,188 to $2,388 a year in subscription is dead weight that Helcim shops avoid. Keyed and online sales add only $0.15 on top of interchange, so a heavy keyed mix is not a reason to skip it.
Payment Depot
Payment Depot sells interchange-plus pricing by quote. Its pricing page (archived Oct 2025) lists no monthly or per-transaction price; it says $0 setup and no cancellation fees. Without prices we cannot compute its full cost or place it on the cost curve.
For a $60K to $150K monthly shop, get a written quote and compare it with Stax's published $199 or more a month plus interchange and 8 cents a sale.
Payment Depot's pricing page says no cancellation fees, but it does not state a contract length. Read the merchant services agreement, not just the pricing page, before you sign.
If your shop runs Saturday hours, ask about support hours before you sign. Hardware prices are not on its pricing page, so ask.
Square
Square charges 2.6 percent plus $0.15 in-person, 3.3 percent plus $0.30 online (2.9 percent plus $0.30 on paid plans), and 3.5 percent plus $0.15 keyed, with no monthly fee on the Free plan (squareup.com/us/en/pricing). The free POS app, hardware from $59, and free next-business-day deposits make it the default pick for a one-bay shop or a mobile mechanic.
The economics weaken as you grow. In our engine Square costs more than Helcim at every volume: at $50K a month in person it is $1,450 against $1,020, about $5,160 a year that does not need to leave your account.
Square approves accounts quickly, with less review up front, and like any processor it can hold funds under its seller terms. Large invoices, a sudden jump in average ticket, or a customer dispute on a $4,000 repair are the kinds of events to ask about. If you take large body-shop tickets, read Square's terms on holds before you run them through it.
Square is the right starter, not the right destination.
Clover
Clover is a hardware-first POS. On Clover.com, software runs from $0 on Starter to $89.95 or more a month on the Growth bundles, with card-present rates of 2.6 percent plus $0.10 on Starter, 2.5 percent on Essentials and 2.3 percent on Growth, and 3.5 percent plus $0.10 keyed (clover.com/pricing, prices checked Oct 2026). Clover Go costs $199, the Compact $349 or $16 a month for 36 months, and Station Solo bundles start at $1,799.
Clover's App Market is the main reason some automotive shops choose it. We could not confirm a Clover integration on the payment pages of Tekmetric, Shopmonkey, or AutoLeap: Tekmetric and Shopmonkey sell their own built-in payments that post to the repair order, and AutoLeap says it integrates with Global Payments. If you want one card reader at the service writer's counter that posts payment directly to a repair order, ask your shop-software vendor which hardware it supports before you buy Clover.
The trade-off is pricing variance. Clover is also sold through banks and resellers, whose rates and terms can differ from Clover.com. Get the merchant services agreement in writing before you accept the hardware, and note that Clover.com's own hardware subscriptions run 36 months and cannot be canceled, even if you switch processors.
Stripe
Stripe charges 2.9 percent plus $0.30 online and 2.7 percent plus $0.05 in-person, with no monthly fee (stripe.com/pricing). It is an outlier on this list because most automotive shops do not pick Stripe for the front counter; they pick it for the website.
If you sell parts online, take booking deposits through a custom scheduler, or run a wholesale tire site, Stripe's API and developer tooling are the reason. The in-person rate is competitive: Stripe Terminal hardware runs $59 for the Reader M2 to $299 for the S700, and Tap to Pay on a phone needs no reader but adds $0.10 a sale. Funding clears in two business days.
Where Stripe falls short for a working shop is integration with shop-management software. Check whether yours can post Stripe payments to the repair order; Tekmetric and Shopmonkey point shops to their own built-in payments. Without that write-back, many shops keep Stripe for ecommerce only and run a separate terminal in the bay. At higher volume, ask Stripe about custom pricing; it offers it for large volume but publishes no threshold.
Verdict
For an independent auto repair, tire, or body shop running up to about $60K in monthly card volume, Helcim is the cheapest option in our engine, with no subscription and automatic volume discounts. Stax overtakes it above roughly $60K monthly on steady volume, because its subscription ($199 or more a month at that size) becomes a smaller share of revenue than Helcim's markup; in our $150K example Stax is about $215 a month cheaper. Square is the right pick only below $25K monthly, and the reserve risk on large tickets means you should plan to leave by the time you cross $50K. If payments built into your shop software matter most, compare Tekmetric's or Shopmonkey's own payments, and Clover's hardware, against these rates, and get every contract in writing because reseller pricing varies. Stripe stays in lane for online parts and booking deposits. Dealerships and multi-rooftop chains should not use this list; negotiate IC++ with a custom acquirer.