What is surcharging, and what regulations do I need to know to integrate surcharging into my payment solutions?
In today’s business environment, credit card payment acceptance is more important than ever. surcharging is a viable and legal option to help offset the increase in credit card usage.
Surcharging is a fee that is automatically added to the bill or sale when a credit card is used for payment to offset the cost of transaction fees and is passed on to the customer.
Even though surcharging is straightforward, many regulations are in place by state laws and card brands that must be followed.
First, make sure it is legal in your state, look at what card brands you accept, and understand some of the regulations.
What you need to know
Notifying the card brands that you intend to start surcharging
- Only Visa and Mastercard require merchants to submit a form notifying them of the intention to surcharge 30 days before the start date of surcharging.
- Here are the surcharging notification forms from Visa and Mastercard.
Disclosure to Customers
- This notice is a requirement whether you are accepting payments online or in person.
-
- Card Present (in-person): Signage should be posted at the entrance and the Point of Sale location.
- Online: Clearly defined within the checkout flow
NOTE: Stax Pay does this for you, so you don’t need to worry!
-
- Over the Phone: Verbal notice before payment is processed.
The surcharge cannot exceed 4%, and the merchant cannot profit from the surcharge
- Processing costs are variable based on the type(s) of cards you accept but don’t worry, we establish the percentage for you. Our industry-leading surcharging technology distinguishes credit vs. debit card types and automatically applies the surcharge rate to credit card transactions ONLY.
The surcharge amount and sale price are processed in one transaction
- Merchants cannot process the amount for your product or service and then process the surcharge amount.
- Example: 4% surcharging fee + $100 sale = $104 total transaction.
NOTE: Stax Pay handles all of this for you.
The surcharging amount is displayed before processing and stated on the receipt
- This can be difficult to implement; however, Stax automatically places your surcharge amount within your payment types once configured.
- The sale, surcharge, and the total must be identified before processing and represented on the receipt.
NOTE: we handle this for you too.
Applying surcharging ONLY to credit cards
- Debit cards (even if run as credit), gift cards, and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged.
- Surcharging fees apply to all credit cards, whether a consumer card, rewards card, business card, corporate card, or purchase card.
NOTE: Stax offers the technology that determines the card type and automatically adds the pre-set surcharge amount, and is displayed in online and card-present situations.
Is Surcharging legal in every state?
- Currently, two states and one US territory prohibit surcharging: Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico.
- Continue to check your state laws if you reside in one of these states where surcharging is prohibited. Recently, many states have overturned their legacy anti-surcharging laws, such as Colorado and Kansas.
-
At Stax, our award-winning support team will guide you through the enablement process, ensuring you are compliant and advise on which surcharging payment acceptance solutions make sense for your business, from online payments, recurring billing, to card-present (in-person) transactions.
Surcharging can be complex, but our dedicated Customer Success Team is available to guide you through the process. CLICK HERE to enable it.