Booked visits, recurring packages, and tips — all under one provider with transparent pricing, instead of three vendors and three statements.
Get Your Rate ReviewDog walking and pet sitting businesses run on more than one revenue stream: booking-app charges for individual visits, recurring package billing for regular clients, and tips added at checkout. Argent consolidates all of it — bookings, packages, and tips — into one processing setup instead of three vendors managing three different systems.
Argent processes payments for pet-care businesses, including:
We explain every line item on your merchant statement before you sign anything.
Your funding timeline is set to match your business, not a one-size-fits-all schedule.
You'll have one named person on your account team who knows your business — not a rotating call center.
Mobile card readers and booking-app checkout that keep up with how your walkers work in the field.
Argent handles the transition, with minimal downtime for booking operations.
One walker or a franchise operation, the setup scales with you.
Wondering how much you could save?Schedule a quick call and we'll walk through your pricing together.
Get My Rate ReviewThe same five issues come up again and again for dog walking and pet sitting services shopping for a processor.
Markups, tiered pricing, and card-brand fees stack up in ways that aren't obvious until the statement arrives.
An expired or reissued card on file silently breaks recurring package billing, turning an automatic renewal into a manual follow-up call.
When your booking app and your add-on service billing aren't talking to each other, reconciling a week's revenue becomes manual work.
Without a cancellation-fee policy tied to your booking app's payments, last-minute cancellations cost you a filled slot and the revenue that would have come with it.
Booking app, invoicing tool, payment processor — one problem can mean three different phone calls.
Every booked visit, recurring package charge, or tip goes through the same basic chain before the money lands in your account. Here's what actually happens, and where the fees come from.
Dog walking and pet sitting payment processing is the financial and technical infrastructure that moves funds from a client's debit or credit card — whether charged through a booking app, a recurring package draft, or an in-home mobile card reader — to your business bank account, through authorization, batch settlement, and deposit.
When a client pays for a visit, package, or add-on service, their card issuer approves or declines the transaction in real time — checking the card is valid, has funds available, and isn't flagged for fraud. This happens in one to two seconds, whether the charge comes from a booking app or a mobile reader in the field.
Interchange is the fee set by Visa, Mastercard, and the other card networks on every transaction — not by Argent or any processor. It varies by card type, with rewards and business cards typically costing more to accept than basic debit.
On top of interchange, your processor adds its own markup. With Interchange-Plus pricing, that markup is one disclosed percentage and per-transaction fee, visible on every statement — instead of a flat per-booking fee that blends the network's real cost and the markup into one number you can't audit.
After authorization, transactions are grouped into a batch and sent to the card networks for settlement, usually once a day. This is when a booking charge or package payment moves from "approved" to actually being processed for payment.
Once settlement clears, funds move to your business bank account — typically the next business day, depending on your processor's funding schedule and your bank's cutoff times.
Your scheduling and booking app and your payment processor are two separate pieces of software. When they're integrated well, individual visits, recurring packages, and add-on services all process through the same account instead of three disconnected systems you have to reconcile by hand.
PCI DSS is the security standard every business that accepts cards has to follow, covering how card data is transmitted, stored, and protected — whether it's a booking app charge, a recurring package draft, or an in-home mobile card reader. Your processor handles most of the technical requirements, but every business still owns the basics.
That's the full chain behind every transaction — and most owners only ever see the last line on their statement. Argent's role isn't just to move that transaction; it's to make sure you understand what you're paying, why you're paying it, and whether a different pricing structure could save you money as your client list grows.
Dog walking and pet sitting is a fast-growing service category, and it runs almost entirely through app-based, card-on-file payments.
size of the US dog walking services market (2025), across 35,349 businesses nationwide.
average annual industry growth since 2020.
of in-person purchases now involve a contactless tap, up from about 1 in 8 in 2020.
If any of these sound familiar, it's worth getting a second opinion on your current setup.
I'm paying too much on booking fees.
A statement review usually turns up markup that was never clearly disclosed. We'll show you the real comparison, line by line.
My booking app's built-in payments cost too much.
Argent can often process behind your existing booking app at a lower blended rate than the platform's own built-in processing — without replacing the app itself.
I've outgrown my starter billing setup.
As your client list grows, a flat per-transaction cut gets expensive fast. Interchange Plus pricing scales with you instead of taking a bigger slice.
My booking app doesn't talk to my invoicing.
Argent works with your existing booking app and invoicing tools as separate decisions — switching one doesn't mean replacing the other.
I don't understand my statement.
Every fee is disclosed in writing before you sign, and we'll walk through exactly what you're being charged and why.
Before choosing a payment processor for your dog walking or pet sitting business, make sure it offers:
Checked every box?Every item on this list is something Argent already provides for dog walking and pet sitting services.
Get Your Rate ReviewA dog walking or pet sitting business runs on repeat clients, not just one-off bookings. Argent securely stores card-on-file information so recurring walk packages and standing visit schedules bill automatically — without you handling sensitive card data directly.
Curious how card-on-file billing could fit your business?Ask about it on your rate review call.
Get Your Rate ReviewMost dog walking and pet sitting services don't know if their processing costs are competitive. A short call, no statement required — we'll review your current setup and tell you honestly, with no sales pressure.
Schedule My Call Transparent Pricing · No Long-Term Contract · PCI DSS Compliant · A Real Person On Your AccountThere's no single number. Your cost depends on your card mix, how charges come in (recurring package draft vs. a one-off booking-app charge), and your monthly volume. With Interchange-Plus pricing, the network's cost is broken out separately from Argent's pricing, and everything is disclosed in writing before you sign.
Interchange is the wholesale cost that Visa, Mastercard, and the other networks charge on every transaction — set by the card brands and paid to the customer's card-issuing bank, not to Argent or any processor. It varies by card type, with rewards and business cards typically costing more to accept than basic debit. Interchange-Plus pricing keeps that cost separate from Argent's own markup, so your statement shows both clearly instead of one blended number.
Often, yes. Send us a recent statement and we'll calculate your effective rate — total fees divided by total processing volume — and compare it against the actual interchange schedule for your card mix. If Argent can offer meaningfully better pricing, we'll show you the math side by side. If we can't, we'll tell you directly.
No. Argent is month-to-month, with no long-term contract and no early termination fee. If you're currently locked into a multi-year agreement through your booking platform's payment processing, that contract term is worth checking before you assume switching isn't possible.
Common ones include PCI non-compliance fees, monthly minimum fees, batch fees, statement or paper fees, and annual PCI assessment fees. None are illegal, but they're often not clearly explained at signup. Argent reviews statements line by line so you know exactly what you're paying for and whether it's negotiable.
Argent supports a large variety of booking and scheduling platforms. Processing and your booking app are two separate decisions — your client roster, visit notes, and scheduling don't have to change just because your payment processor does.
Often, yes — many mobile card readers can be reprogrammed to run on Argent's processing instead of being replaced outright. Send us your current equipment and we'll confirm compatibility before you commit to anything.
Yes, for mobile readers your payments actually run through, leasing is available through Argent's equipment partner, separate from Argent's own processing agreement.
Argent coordinates a replacement or repair through its equipment partner so you're not stuck without a way to take payment in the field.
The goal is zero disruption to bookings. Most businesses keep their existing booking app and either reprogram current equipment or swap in a compatible reader, with account setup and cutover scheduled for a low-traffic window.
Yes — a securely stored card on file lets recurring packages and standing visit schedules run automatically instead of you manually re-collecting payment information every cycle.
Without an account updater, an expired or reissued card simply fails at the next billing date, which means a missed payment and a manual follow-up. An automatic card updater can refresh many of those cards before they fail.
Yes — contactless and mobile wallet payments are supported on modern mobile readers as standard, not as an add-on or upcharge.
Yes — a tip prompt can run as part of the same transaction as the visit or walk charge, so clients aren't juggling a separate app or cash for gratuity.
Yes — multi-walker operations get consolidated reporting across every team member under one merchant relationship, instead of managing separate accounts location by location.
That's common for pet-care businesses. Argent's setup doesn't penalize volume swings the way a monthly-minimum fee structure can, and your account is built around your actual booking pattern rather than a flat assumption of steady monthly volume.
Most businesses are live within about a week of the first call, though the exact timeline depends on your current equipment, booking app, and underwriting. We'll give you a specific timeline once we know your setup.
Your funding timeline is set to match your business and volume, and disclosed upfront before you sign, since funding speed depends on processing history, risk category, and banking relationship.
A chargeback happens when a cardholder disputes a transaction directly with their bank rather than with you — funds are pulled back automatically during investigation. Every Argent transaction is screened with AVS, CVV matching, and tokenization before settlement, which catches a meaningful share of fraudulent or mistaken charges before they become disputes.
PCI DSS is the security standard every business that accepts cards has to follow, covering how card data is transmitted, stored, and protected. Every Argent setup is PCI DSS compliant, with encryption and fraud monitoring built into the processing, and we walk you through the annual self-assessment questionnaire.
None. The rate review call is a statement comparison and a conversation, not a sales pitch. If we can't do meaningfully better for your business than what you're paying now, we'll say so directly.
You can still get a statement review and rate comparison now, even if you're not ready to switch immediately — that way you know exactly what a change would save once your current agreement allows it.