Dealer fees in contractor financing typically run 2 to 4 percent of the loan amount on standard interest-bearing loans and 8 to 25 percent or more on promotional 0% APR products, according to 2026 fee guides published by One Click Contractor. On a $20,000 financed job with an 8 percent fee, you collect $18,400. The other $1,600 is deducted before the money ever reaches your account, which is why this one number decides whether financing grows your margin or quietly eats it.
Key takeaways
- Standard installment loans carry dealer fees of roughly 2 to 4 percent; promotional 0% APR plans run 8 to 25 percent or more, per One Click Contractor's 2026 fee breakdown.
- GreenSky's published merchant rate sheets show fees from under 3 percent on standard loans up to 18.5 percent on true 0% plans, with a documented maximum of 26.6 percent on its steepest products.
- Wisetack charges a flat 3.9 percent per transaction, rising to 4.9, 6.9, or 9.9 percent only when a customer takes an extended 0% APR plan, per Wisetack's help center.
- Hearth charges no per-transaction dealer fee at all; you pay a flat subscription of $1,499 to $4,999 per year instead, per Hearth's pricing page.
- At a blended 8 percent fee, the break-even against Hearth's $1,799 Pro plan is about $22,500 in annual financed volume; at 4 percent it is about $45,000.
What a dealer fee is and who charges it
A dealer fee, also called a merchant fee or merchant discount, is the percentage a financing platform deducts from your payout when a homeowner finances a job through you. The lender funds the loan, takes on the repayment risk, and collects its compensation from your side of the transaction rather than only from the homeowner's interest payments.
The fee exists for a simple reason: on low-rate and 0% APR promotional loans, the lender gives up most or all of its interest income. Someone has to cover that subsidy, and that someone is you. The steeper the promotion the homeowner gets, the steeper the fee you pay, which is why 0% APR contractor financing always carries the highest dealer fees on any platform's rate sheet.
Typical dealer fee ranges in 2026, by platform
Dealer fees vary widely by platform, loan product, and term length, so a single "average" is misleading. The table below shows verified ranges with their sources. Where a platform does not publish current numbers publicly, the figures come from its most recent published rate sheets.
| Platform | Standard loan fee | Promotional / 0% APR fee | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreenSky | 0% to 2.75% | 11.5% to 18.5% on true 0% plans; up to 26.6% max | Published merchant rate sheets (2022 and Dec 2023); max cited in Hearth's fee guide |
| Wisetack | 3.9% flat | 4.9% (6 mo), 6.9% (12 mo), 9.9% (24 mo) extended 0% APR | Wisetack help center, 2026 |
| Service Finance | Under 4% on basic plans (3.75% on plan 1006) | Double digits on deep promos, roughly up to 24% | Published dealer pricing matrices |
| Hearth | $0 per transaction | $0 per transaction | Hearth pricing page: $1,499 to $4,999/yr subscription |
| Industry typical | 2% to 4% | 8% to 25%+ | One Click Contractor fee guide, 2026 |
Two costs hide outside the headline percentage. GreenSky's 2022 rate sheet listed a $39 activation fee added to the borrower's first payment and a $35 monthly minimum-volume charge for merchants funding under $3,500 per month. Always read the full rate card, not just the fee column for the plan you expect to sell most. For a deeper look at individual programs, see our Wisetack review and our Hearth vs Service Finance comparison.
The worked example: what an 8 percent fee does to a $20,000 job
A worked example makes the cost concrete. Say you close a $20,000 roof replacement and the homeowner picks a 0% APR promo that carries an 8 percent dealer fee.
- Contract price: $20,000
- Dealer fee: $20,000 x 0.08 = $1,600
- Your payout: $20,000 - $1,600 = $18,400
You still buy materials and pay labor for a $20,000 job, but you collect $18,400. If your planned gross margin was 35 percent ($7,000), the fee just took $1,600 of it, cutting your real margin on this job to 27 percent. Run that 20 times a year at similar numbers and dealer fees quietly cost you $32,000, without a single invoice ever landing on your desk.
Per-transaction fees vs a flat subscription: the break-even math
Hearth is the structural outlier in this market: no per-job dealer fee, just an annual subscription ($1,499 Essentials, $1,799 Pro, $4,999 Elite as of mid-2026, per Hearth's pricing page and its Capterra listing). That turns the platform decision into a break-even calculation: divide the subscription by your blended dealer fee rate. At 8 percent, $1,799 / 0.08 = about $22,500 in financed volume per year. At a leaner 4 percent blend, break-even doubles to about $45,000.
| Annual financed volume | Dealer fees at 4% | Dealer fees at 8% | Hearth Pro flat fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $1,799 |
| $50,000 | $2,000 | $4,000 | $1,799 |
| $100,000 | $4,000 | $8,000 | $1,799 |
| $250,000 | $10,000 | $20,000 | $1,799 |
| $500,000 | $20,000 | $40,000 | $1,799 |
The honest read: if you finance only a handful of small service tickets on standard-rate loans, a per-transaction platform like Wisetack can genuinely be cheaper. If you sell promo-heavy, big-ticket work, the flat fee wins early and the gap widens every year. We break down the full head-to-head in GreenSky vs Hearth: the dealer fee math, the full cost picture in how much Hearth costs contractors, and plan selection in Hearth Pro vs Starter.
How to build dealer fees into your pricing (divide, do not add)
Pricing for dealer fees correctly means grossing up, not adding on. To net $20,000 after an 8 percent fee, divide by 0.92: $20,000 / 0.92 = $21,739. Contractors who instead add 8 percent quote $21,600, and $21,600 x 0.92 = $19,872, which leaves them $128 short on every job priced that way.
One caution: most merchant agreements do not allow charging a financed customer more than a cash customer for the same scope, so check your contract before adjusting anything. The standard approach is to build the expected financing cost into your base pricing across all jobs, the same way you already build in fuel, insurance, and warranty reserves.
When paying a dealer fee is still the right call
A dealer fee is worth paying whenever it closes a job you would otherwise lose. A 5 percent fee on a $15,000 job costs $750; losing that job to a competitor who offers monthly payments costs $15,000. Contractors who offer financing see close rates improve by roughly 18 to 20 percent versus those who do not, per One Click Contractor's 2026 data, and about one third of home improvement projects were financed in 2024.
Dealer fees become a problem only when you pay high promo fees on jobs that would have closed anyway at cash pricing, or when your financed volume grows past the break-even point and you never re-run the math. We did the other side of this calculation in the true cost of not offering financing, and the four-platform matchup in Hearth vs Wisetack vs GreenSky vs Improvifi.
Common dealer fee mistakes
- Treating the quoted price as the collected price and only noticing the gap at year-end tax time.
- Adding the fee percentage to quotes instead of dividing by (1 - fee), which under-recovers on every job.
- Comparing platforms on standard-loan fees while actually selling mostly 0% promos, where the spreads are 3 to 5 times wider.
- Ignoring activation fees and minimum-volume charges buried below the headline rate.
- Never totaling last year's financed volume times average fee, which is the one number that tells you if a flat subscription would save money.
If you want to skip per-job fees entirely, Hearth's flat-fee model is the main alternative worth pricing out against your own volume.
How we put this together
We pulled fee figures from platforms' own materials: GreenSky's published merchant rate sheets (2022 and December 2023 versions), Wisetack's help center pages on transaction and extended 0% APR fees, Service Finance dealer pricing matrices circulated to enrolled contractors, and Hearth's public pricing page plus its Capterra listing. Industry-wide ranges come from One Click Contractor's 2026 fee guide. All figures were last verified in July 2026; rate sheets change, so confirm current numbers with your rep before signing.
Frequently asked questions
What is a typical dealer fee in contractor financing?
A typical dealer fee is 2 to 4 percent on standard interest-bearing loans and 8 to 25 percent or more on promotional 0% APR plans, per One Click Contractor's 2026 figures. Your exact rate depends on the platform, the loan product, and the promo term length.
Why are 0% APR dealer fees so much higher?
0% APR fees are higher because the lender collects no interest from the homeowner, so it recovers that lost income from you instead. GreenSky's rate sheets show true 0% plans at 11.5 to 18.5 percent versus under 3 percent for standard installment loans.
Can I pass the dealer fee on to the homeowner?
Usually not directly: most merchant agreements prohibit quoting a financed customer a higher price than a cash customer for the same work. The compliant approach is grossing up your base pricing across all jobs to absorb the expected financing cost.
Do any platforms have no dealer fees?
Hearth charges no per-transaction dealer fee; contractors pay a flat annual subscription of $1,499 to $4,999 instead, per its pricing page. Wisetack has no subscription but charges 3.9 percent per transaction, so every major model charges somewhere.
How do I find my break-even between dealer fees and a subscription?
Divide the annual subscription by your blended dealer fee rate. Against Hearth's $1,799 Pro plan, that is about $22,500 of financed volume at an 8 percent blend, or about $45,000 at 4 percent; finance more than that and the flat fee costs less.
Are dealer fees negotiable?
Dealer fees are sometimes negotiable for high-volume contractors, since large merchants can push platforms like GreenSky for better program pricing. Small shops rarely get discounts on published rate cards, which makes picking the right fee structure up front matter more.
