What is Surcharging?
Surcharging credit card transactions allows you to pass on processing fees to customers by automatically adding a fee to all credit card transactions.
This fee will appear as a “surcharge” on sales details and customer receipts.
What is the benefit?
You can pass on your credit card processing fees to your customers. If they want to avoid the fee, they can simply pay in cash.
Regulations and compliance
Follow state, federal, provincial, and card brand rules, before enabling Surcharging. When in a location that prohibits surcharging, comply with state laws. You must inform your customers of the fees being added. The disclosure should include the following:
- The surcharge is being imposed by the merchant.
- Consumers must be given the opportunity to opt out of the sale or pay by other means before the surcharge is added to the sale.
- Debit cards and prepaid cards can never have a surcharge imposed — even when a customer runs a debit card as "credit."
- The surcharge cannot exceed 3%, or your actual cost of card acceptance, whichever is lower.
- The surcharge must appear as a separate line item on the customer's receipt.
- Surcharging is prohibited or restricted in some states (for example Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts). Check your state's rules before enabling surcharging.
For example, you could post a sign such as this in your store:
How do I enable Surcharging?
Contact your payment services representative to get set up. If your store uses a Dejavoo payment terminal, surcharging is configured on the terminal for you — the terminal automatically recognizes the card type, so the surcharge is only ever applied to credit cards.
For a comparison of surcharging with our other differential pricing programs, see Differential Pricing.