For modern dealership groups, margin compression is a constant challenge. Between rising operating costs, credit card fees, and pressure to maintain CSI scores, profitability is often dictated not by how much you sell, but by how efficiently you operate.
That’s why one national dealer group made the decision to implement a compliant pass the fee program across its parts, service, and sales departments – they recovered a staggering $366,886 in card processing fees within the first year. But the real win? That money didn’t just sit on a balance sheet. It was reinvested into staffing, training, and customer experience initiatives that positioned the group for long-term growth.
This is the story of how it worked, and how you can do the same.
The Bottom-Line Impact: $366,886 Back to the Business
When this dealer group first explored surcharge programs, they weren’t just interested in reducing costs. They wanted measurable, repeatable ROI.
Their previous processing arrangement absorbed nearly $370,000 per year in credit card fees. With limited visibility into the breakdown of card types and a rapidly growing service department, these fees were growing month over month.
Rescue Payments deployed its turnkey pass the fee program across all rooftops in just two weeks. Without changing advertised pricing or adding operational friction, the group began recovering 2.4% per credit transaction, fully compliant with Visa and Mastercard regulations.
The results:
- $47,000 in average annual savings per rooftop
- Credit card use decreased; debit usage rose by more than 2.5x
- Zero measurable drop in CSI or customer complaints
What Could You Do with an Extra $366,000?
That savings wasn’t just a line-item improvement. It became a tool for strategic reinvestment.
The group allocated funds into:
- Hiring and onboarding additional fixed ops staff
- Customer lounge upgrades to improve service experience
- Expanded technician training, which helped reduce rework and increase throughput
Rather than cutting costs at the expense of experience, the surcharge savings enabled them to improve both margins and customer satisfaction. And because it’s framed as a customer choice, with clear signage and staff scripting, feedback remained overwhelmingly neutral to positive.
In fact, after scanning thousands of Google reviews across this dealer group’s rooftops – eight months into running the program – we found just one mention of the surcharge. And even then, it was a footnote in a larger service-related comment.
Real ROI in the First 30 Days
You don’t have to wait a year to see results. Within the first month, the group experienced:
- A 13% drop in credit usage, as customers shifted to debit
- Over $28,000 in recovered fees across all stores
- Positive adoption from parts and service teams due to simple workflows
Training was key. Rescue’s team onboarded advisors, service managers, controllers, and reception teams with scripts, roleplay, and live terminal testing to ensure confidence before go-live.
By week four, leadership had enough data to begin expanding the program into vehicle sales, confident that customers understood the model and staff could handle questions without discomfort.
The Compliance Blueprint: Avoiding the Pitfalls
Not all surcharge programs are created equal. Rescue’s solution avoided the compliance and customer experience pitfalls that plague DIY systems and legacy POS configurations:
- No surcharges applied to debit (terminals auto-detect card type)
- All receipts itemized with surcharge shown clearly as a separate line item
- Tabletop signage, payment screen prompts, and staff scripts for transparency
- Pre-launch checklist to confirm every step was met before activation
Dealerships that implement surcharge programs without the above compliancies risk fines, chargebacks, and negative customer reactions. Compliance isn’t optional, it’s the foundation.
Curious About What this Looks Like? Here’s a Breakdown
Week 1: Internal Buy-In and Preparation
- Confirm leadership and management support
- Finalize signage, scripting, and formatting
- Train all customer-facing staff and roleplay common conversations
Week 2: Go Live (Parts & Service Only)
- Install and test surcharge-enabled terminals
- Begin applying surcharges in parts, service, and recon
- Use signage and trained scripts to guide payment discussions
Week 3: Monitor & Adjust
- Track payment mix changes and customer reactions
- Reinforce best practices in daily meetings
- Address questions and adjust messaging if needed
Week 4: Expand and Report
- Begin rollout into sales departments if appropriate
- Share results with leadership and ownership groups
- Continue auditing for compliance and clarity
Why It Worked: Strategy, Simplicity, and the Right Partner
The key to this success was execution. The dealership group didn’t try to reinvent the wheel or cobble together manual workarounds. They chose a provider who offered:
- Turnkey implementation in just a couple of weeks
- White-glove staff training
- Fully compliant signage, scripting, and receipt formatting
- Post-launch monitoring and support
Because Rescue Payments specializes in automotive, the team understood the importance of CSI, frontline workflow, and dealership-specific systems. That industry fluency eliminated friction and built trust across every level of the organization.
Considering the Trade-Offs
The average Canadian dealership quietly absorbs around $70,000 a year in credit card fees. For dealer groups, that number compounds quickly – often reaching six figures in avoidable costs.
Still, many hesitate to act. The reasons are valid: concern about customer perception, uncertainty about compliance, or simply not knowing where to start. But what this case study shows is that surcharging doesn’t have to be disruptive. With the right approach, you can preserve your CSI, avoid complexity, and reinvest meaningful capital back into the business.
But the data tells a different story: with the right rollout, customers understand. CSI stays intact. And profitability improves within weeks, not quarters. In practice, only a small percentage of customers (typically 1–2%) raise a question about the surcharge. When they do, clear signage and well-prepared staff make those conversations easy to manage.
If you’re curious what this might look like for your group, you’re not alone – and you’re not far off.
The greatest risk is not moving at all.
Final Thought: This Isn’t Just a Payment Model. It’s a Profit Strategy.
Rescue Payments helps dealerships turn what was once a sunk cost into a growth lever. This case study isn’t a one-off success – it’s a repeatable strategy that more groups are embracing every month.
You don’t have to absorb these costs any longer. You don’t have to guess at compliance. And you don’t have to sacrifice customer experience to protect your bottom line.
You just need the right plan – and the right partner.
Learn more and explore what your dealership could recover:
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