Stop Paying Credit Card Processing Fees
Cash discount programs for San Diego auto shops, set up compliantly.
THE ARITHMETIC
What Card Processing Actually Costs A Shop
A shop running twenty thousand dollars a month through the terminal, at an effective rate of around 3.5%, is paying about seven hundred dollars every month for the privilege. Here is the same number over a year.
$20,000
Monthly card volume
$700
Paid in processing every month, at about 3.5%
$8,400
Kept in the business per year
Illustrative figures at $20,000 a month and a 3.5% effective rate. Your real number comes off your own statements — that is what the savings analysis is for.
How It Works
Four steps, and most of the work is ours.
- Send us two recent merchant statements. That is all we need to start. No site visit, no application, no commitment at this stage.
- We calculate your exact annual number. We read the effective rate off your own statements — not an estimate — and show you what a cash discount program keeps in the business over twelve months.
- We install the terminal and the required signage. A new terminal, the posted pricing at the counter and the entrance, and the receipt wording that goes with it.
- You stop paying processing fees. The cost of card acceptance comes off your monthly overhead and stays off.
How This Works Under California Law
This is the part most processors gloss over, so here is the actual structure.
Surcharging is legal in California
California passed a no-surcharge law in 1985, but it stopped being enforceable after the Ninth Circuit decided Italian Colors Restaurant v. Becerra in 2018. A California merchant can charge more for a card payment than for cash.
A surcharge is capped — and cannot be a profit center
A surcharge is limited to 3% of the transaction or the merchant’s actual cost of accepting the card, whichever is lower, and the merchant may not make money on it. If your cost of acceptance is 2.6%, then 2.6% is your ceiling.
A cash discount is structured differently
A cash discount program is not a surcharge and is not capped that way. The shop posts its card price as the regular price and offers a discount to customers who pay cash. Nothing is added at the register — the lower price is the exception, not the higher one.
That structure also satisfies SB 478
SB 478, California’s Honest Pricing Law, has been in force since 1 July 2024. It requires any mandatory charge to be included in the advertised price up front rather than revealed at checkout. A cash discount program fits that requirement by design: the posted price is what a card customer pays, and no fee appears at the end of the transaction.
What we set up for you
We handle the pieces that make the structure hold up: the posted pricing on your board and your estimates, the wording that prints on your receipts, and the entrance and counter signage.
This page describes how we structure programs. It is not legal advice — confirm your own setup with your attorney or accountant before you launch.
Who It Is For
Cash discount works on ticket size, so it is not right for every shop. Here is where it pays, and where we will tell you not to bother.
| Shop type | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Performance & tuning | Best | Large tickets and high card volume per job |
| Transmission & engine | Best | Four-figure repair orders make the monthly savings obvious |
| General repair & service | Strong | Steady mid-size tickets across a full bay schedule |
| Wheels, tint, audio, detail | Strong | Discretionary spend at healthy ticket sizes |
| Smog & quick lube | Weak | The ticket is too small for the savings to matter |
| Collision & body | Weak | The insurer pays the shop directly — only the deductible runs through the terminal |
Running a shop that also needs a business-grade internet circuit at the same address? We handle that side too — see dedicated internet access.
WHY MOBOSOFT
Terminals Are Not A Side Business Here
Mobosoft’s founder, Max Boroumand, spent 18 years co-founding and running an internet service provider — a network operator with its own data center, not a reseller. Payment terminals were part of that business at a scale most local agents never touch.
18 years
Co-founding and running an ISP
100,000+
Subscribers served
40,000
Payment terminals deployed
15
Tower sites operated
150
People on the team
In-house
Data center, with colocation customers
Mobosoft Inc. is a registered ISC for TSYS / Global Payments. You deal with the founder, not a call center.
Get Your Free Savings Analysis
Send us two recent merchant statements and we will come back with your exact annual number, same business day. Prefer to talk it through? Call 858-947-2222 or email ceo@mobosoft.net.