Credit card surcharge: when you can pass card fees to customers

Is it legal to charge credit card fees?

Visa defines a surcharge as an additional fee or charge that a merchant adds to a consumer's bill for using a particular form of payment. A credit card surcharge is that fee applied when a customer pays by credit card, so the customer covers some of what the card costs you to accept. In most US states it is legal, as long as you follow the card networks' rules and your state's law.

Two sets of rules apply at once. The card networks set the first set: Visa limits a surcharge to your merchant discount rate for that credit card or 3%, whichever is lowest, and Mastercard to the lesser of your average effective merchant discount rate for Mastercard credit or Mastercard's Maximum Surcharge Cap, which is 4%. Your state sets the second set. As of February 15, 2024, Visa's merchant guide listed Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico as banning surcharges, and Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York as setting requirements. Visa says that list may contain errors, and it is already out of date for Oklahoma, which has allowed capped surcharges since November 1, 2025. The state table below names each state's own statute or agency page instead.

If you sell in more than one state, Visa's rule is that each store follows the law of the state it is in. For an online shop, ask a lawyer which state's law applies to your sales, because the answer depends on where you and your buyers are. Rules vary by state and can change after each legislative session. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Visa and Mastercard surcharge rules

Both networks allow US merchants to surcharge credit cards under the same broad conditions: tell the network and your processor in advance, stay under a cap, never surcharge debit or prepaid cards, and disclose the fee before the customer pays and on the receipt.

Your merchant discount rate is the percentage your processor charges you to accept the card. If your processor charges less than the network cap, your surcharge has to be lower too. Visa says the acquirer of a merchant found surcharging improperly may face an immediate US $1,000 fine.

How to start surcharging without breaking the rules

These steps follow Visa's and Mastercard's merchant pages. Check your own state's law first, because no network rule makes a surcharge legal where the state bans it.

1. Check your state

   Look up your state in the table below and read the linked statute. In a state that bans surcharges, use a cash discount instead, if the state allows one.

2. Find your real card cost

   Ask your processor for your merchant discount rate on credit cards. The surcharge cannot be higher than that rate, and Visa also caps it at your merchant discount rate for that credit card or 3%, whichever is lowest.

3. Give notice

   Tell your acquirer at least 30 days before you start surcharging. Mastercard wants notice no less than thirty days before you start, to both Mastercard and your acquirer.

4. Set up your checkout

   Make sure the fee applies only to credit cards. Visa's rule is that a debit card run as credit is still a debit card, so a debit card swiped as credit still cannot be surcharged.

5. Post the disclosures

   Show the surcharge at the point of entry, the point of sale or transaction, and on every receipt. Mastercard also wants the dollar amount of the surcharge on the transaction receipt. Online, the notice has to appear before the customer pays.

Credit card surcharge laws by state

The table lists the states whose statutes we read on the state's own legislature site. Each row quotes the rule and names the statute. Law checked on 3 Oct 2026. We re-check every six months and after each legislative session. If your state is not listed, check its attorney general's consumer protection page before you surcharge, because cities and other state laws can add rules.

Several states also set how you disclose the fee. Colorado requires signage at the premises, or a notice before an online customer completes the sale, in the wording set by statute, a separate line item for the surcharge on the receipt, and only one credit card surcharge per transaction. New Jersey requires the amount of the surcharge, before the customer is charged, with a sign at both the point of entry and the point of sale in a shop and clear and conspicuous electronic notice of the surcharge on the checkout page online. Oklahoma requires the amount the surcharge amount at the point of entry and point of sale in person, and on the home page and point-of-sale webpage online.

Minnesota asks you to tell the customer orally at the time of sale and by a sign conspicuously posted on the premises in person, and to post a surcharge notice during the sale, at the point of sale, on the order summary or on the checkout page online. A seller who breaks the Minnesota rule faces a civil penalty of not more than $500 and a refund of the surcharge. In New York the penalty is a civil penalty not to exceed five hundred dollars for each violation.

Credit card surcharge in California

California's Civil Code section 1748.1 reads: No retailer may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card. The same section says discounts for paying by cash, check or other means are allowed if offered to all buyers. Ask a California lawyer before you add a surcharge there, and read the current text of the section on the state's legislature site.

The option the statute itself allows in California is a cash discount: one posted price, with money off for cash or check, offered to every buyer.

Is a debit card surcharge legal?

A debit card surcharge breaks the card network rules in every state. Visa allows surcharging on credit cards only; debit cards and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged, and Mastercard says surcharges are not allowed on Debit Mastercard or Mastercard prepaid cards. Some state laws say the same thing: Maine bans surcharges on debit cards as well as credit cards, and Colorado's law bars a surcharge on cash, a check, a debit card or a gift card.

The ban covers the card, not the way it is run. Visa's merchant guide says that when a debit cardholder picks credit at the terminal, a debit card run as credit is still a debit card. Your checkout or terminal has to tell credit cards and debit cards apart before it adds the fee.

Cash discount programs

A cash discount program sets a card price and gives money off when the customer pays another way. Visa's rules allow it, as long as you show only the card price per item, or the card and cash prices side by side.

At checkout, Visa wants the card total shown in full, not reached by adding a fee for card payment. If the card price only appears after a fee is added at the register, Visa may treat it as a surcharge, and its surcharge rules then apply. Connecticut and Massachusetts allow discounts for paying another way even though they ban surcharges. In Connecticut a seller may offer that discount only if it posts a notice disclosing such discount.

Example: a surcharge on one credit card sale

Example inputs: a $40 order paid with a Visa credit card, in a state that allows surcharges and sets no lower cap, with a processor that charges you 2.9% on that card. Visa's cap is your merchant discount rate for that credit card or 3%, whichever is lowest, so the most you can add is 2.9% of $40, which is $1.16. If the customer paid with a debit card, you could add nothing. If your processor charged 3.5%, Visa's cap would hold the surcharge to $1.20, which is 3% of $40.

Where Nation fits

Questions about credit card surcharges