Text to Pay for Dealerships: How It Works and What It Costs

Last updated: October 19, 2026

Quick answer: Text to pay sends your service customer a secure payment link by text when the RO is ready. They open the invoice and pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Affirm financing, before they reach your counter. Most stores barely use it. Across 871 dealerships, only 4.7% of repair orders get a digital payment request. When customers do get one, 82.5% of payments at top stores happen on a phone.

What is text to pay at a dealership?

Text to pay means your advisor texts the customer a link to their invoice, and the customer pays on their phone. No card numbers read over the phone. No line at the cashier.

You know the 5 PM scene. The techs are done, the cars are parked out front, and six customers are standing at the cashier with their phones out. Meanwhile an advisor is on hold with someone who said they'd call back with their card.

Text to pay moves that last step to the customer's phone, wherever they are. At work, or in the car on the way over.

It's still rare. In our Cost of Silence report, which covers 16.8 million repair orders, only 4.7% of ROs got a digital payment request.¹ So most stores are still running the 5 PM line by choice, not by necessity.

How does text to pay work at the service counter?

It takes four steps, and the customer only does one of them.

1. The RO is ready. The tech finishes the job and the advisor closes out the invoice. Instead of calling to say "your car is ready," the advisor sends the payment link in the same text thread.
2. The customer gets the text. It comes from your dealership's number, with a secure link to the invoice.
3. They review and pay. The link opens the invoice on their phone, line by line. They pay with a credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Affirm financing. No app to download and no account to create.
4. You get paid. The payment shows as paid against the RO in Kimoby, and a confirmation text goes out on its own. When they arrive, it's a key hand-off.

Customers like it more than you'd expect. At top stores, 82.5% of digital payments happen on a mobile phone.¹ At Honda & Toyota of Seattle, more than 75% of customers now pay from their phone before they pick up the car.

What does text to pay change for your service department?

The short version: you get paid sooner, and your advisors stop acting as cashiers. Here's where it shows up.

The 5 PM line gets shorter

Customers who paid from their phone walk in, grab the keys and leave. Your cashier handles the few who still want to pay at the counter. Pickups after hours get easier too, because the money is in before the keys go in the drop box.

Your advisors get their afternoon back

Think about how many calls your advisors make just to collect payment. "I'll call you back with my card" turns into three more calls. With the link in the text thread, that whole loop is gone, and your advisors stay on open ROs.

Bigger jobs get approved

A $2,000 repair is a hard yes for a lot of people. Affirm financing on the payment link lets the customer split it into payments, while your store gets paid in full. At Policaro Acura, the average Affirm-financed RO grew 246%, from $717 to $2,479. That's the financed ROs only, not the whole store, but it shows what happens when price stops being the objection.

Fewer fraud headaches

Reading a card number over the phone is how card numbers end up on sticky notes. A payment link keeps the card off your desk. It also catches things a busy advisor can't.

Mercedes-Benz Langley had a customer who wanted to pay remotely and pick up after hours, on a towed car. The card turned out to be stolen. Kimoby Pay flagged the payment in real time, and the store blocked it and kept the vehicle. The attempted charge was $21,219.17. Today, 52% of their customers pay on their phone.

What does text to pay cost a dealership?

You pay a processing fee per transaction, like any card payment. With Kimoby Pay, mobile payments cost 2.8% plus $0.30 on Visa and Mastercard, and 3.4% plus $0.30 on AMEX. On a $1,000 RO paid by Visa, that's $28.30.

You can choose to pass part of that on with a surcharge. The rules are strict, so read them before you turn it on.

• Surcharges apply to credit cards only. Debit is never surcharged.
• The cap is 3% in the US and 2.4% in Canada, or your actual processing cost if that's lower.
• Surcharging is not allowed in Quebec.
• Some US states restrict or ban it. Check the rules where your store operates.
• The customer sees the surcharge before they pay.

So on that same $1,000 Visa payment in Ontario, a 2.4% surcharge would cover $24 of your $28.30. The credit card surcharging page has a calculator so you can run your own card mix.

The other side of the cost is time. Count the payment calls your advisors make in a week. That's the number to put next to the fees.

What should you look for in a text-to-pay solution?

Not every payment link is built for a service drive. Here's the checklist we'd use. Ask to see each item live in the demo.

• The link goes out in the same text thread as the inspection and the estimate, from your dealership's number
• PCI DSS compliant processing, so card data never touches your network
• Credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, with financing on the same link
• Deposits within a day or so, with daily reports your office can reconcile
• Refunds issued from the platform, with permission controls
• Fraud checks before the payment goes through
• A clear answer on how the payment gets into your DMS
• A surcharge setting that follows the caps for your province or state

That DMS question matters most to your controller. Ask it plainly: "When a customer pays by text, does the payment post to the RO in my DMS, or does someone key it in?" The answer depends on your DMS, and a good vendor will tell you straight.

What should your text-to-pay message say?

Keep it short, name the car, and put the link in the first text. Here are three templates you can adapt tomorrow.

Payment request

Hi {customer.name}, your {customer.vehicle} is ready. To skip the line, you can pay your invoice securely here: {payment.link}. Thanks, {advisor.name}

Before the end-of-day rush

Hi {customer.name}, it gets busy at the counter after 4 PM. Want to pay now and just grab your keys when you arrive? Reply YES and I'll send the secure link. {advisor.name}

Payment confirmation

Thanks {customer.name}, we got your payment. Your keys are at the service desk. See you next time. {advisor.name}

Service texts tied to an open RO follow different rules than marketing texts. If you're unsure, our TCPA guide for dealerships covers the basics, and your own counsel covers the rest.

Where does Kimoby fit, and where doesn't it?

We make Kimoby, so weigh this accordingly.

With Kimoby Pay, your advisors send the payment link in the same thread as the video inspection and the estimate. Customers pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Affirm. Funds land in your account within 24 hours. Processing runs through Stripe at PCI DSS Level 1, and card data is tokenized. Text to pay is part of the Service Lane OS. See mobile payments for the full feature list.

What it doesn't do: payment write-back to the RO works on CDK only. If you're on CDK, CDK Writeback posts each payment to the right RO with your own payment codes. On any other DMS, your office still posts the payment in the DMS. And if your store is in Quebec, the surcharge setting is off the table.

If that fits how your store works, book a demo. We'll send you a payment link during the call so you can see it on your own phone.

FAQ

Is text to pay secure?

Yes, when the processor is PCI compliant. With Kimoby Pay, payments are processed by Stripe at PCI DSS Level 1 and card data is tokenized, so it never touches your dealership network. That's safer than writing a card number down or taking it over the phone.

How much does text to pay cost a dealership?

With Kimoby Pay, mobile payments cost 2.8% plus $0.30 on Visa and Mastercard, and 3.4% plus $0.30 on AMEX. You can add a credit-only surcharge of up to 3% in the US or 2.4% in Canada, never above your actual cost, and not in Quebec.

Can customers finance a repair through a text-to-pay link?

Yes. With Kimoby Pay, Affirm financing sits on the same payment link, and your store gets paid in full. At Policaro Acura, the average Affirm-financed RO grew 246%, from $717 to $2,479.

Does a text-to-pay payment post back to my DMS?

With Kimoby Pay, payments write back to the RO automatically on CDK. On other DMSs, the payment is recorded in Kimoby and your office posts it in the DMS.

Will older customers use text to pay?

If they can open a text and tap a link, they can pay. At top stores, 82.5% of digital payments happen on a phone, and at Honda & Toyota of Seattle more than 75% of customers pay from their phone before pickup.

Sources
[1] Kimoby, The Cost of Silence: Dealership Service Report (August 2026). 871 dealerships, 16.8 million repair orders, 12 months ending February 2026.
Case studies: Honda & Toyota of Seattle, Policaro Acura, Mercedes-Benz Langley.
Surcharge caps: Kimoby, Credit Card Surcharging for Car Dealerships. Each dealership is responsible for confirming the rules where it operates.