Catering is a high-ticket, event-driven business. A corporate lunch costs $500–$2,000. A wedding reception runs $5,000–$30,000+. A regular weekly corporate client generates $1,000–$3,000 per month. When these payments come by card — and they almost always do — processing fees take a serious bite.
A $10,000 wedding catering deposit at 3% costs **$300 to process**. For a catering company doing $40,000–$150,000/month in card sales, annual processing fees reach **$12,000 to $63,000**.
The Catering Processing Problem
Large Single Payments
Multiple Payments Per Event
Caterers often collect a deposit, a second payment at confirmation, and a final balance. Each payment carries processing fees. A $15,000 wedding with three payments generates processing fees three times.
Corporate Accounts Use Premium Cards
Corporate clients paying for events almost exclusively use corporate or premium credit cards — the most expensive card types to process.
Network Offset Pricing for Catering
Proposal / invoice example:
Why Catering Clients Accept It
- B2B clients understand processing costs. Corporate clients deal with the same issue in their businesses.
- Large payments incentivize ACH/check. Saving $200–$400 on a $10,000 payment is meaningful. Many clients prefer ACH for large transactions anyway.
- The proposal presents both options upfront. No surprises at final billing.
The Savings
Rachel D. covers payment trends for restaurants, cafes, and food service businesses. She spent eight years in restaurant operations management before moving into fintech consulting, giving her a firsthand understanding of how processing fees impact kitchen margins.
$10,000+
in potential annual savings with optimized payment processing.
Get Started
The first step to reducing your processing costs is understanding exactly what you are paying today. Request a free statement analysis and we will show you a side-by-side comparison of your current costs versus what you could save with Network Offset Pricing.