Short answer
In the US you can usually add a surcharge to credit card sales, within limits. Visa says the surcharge must not exceed your own cost of accepting the card and can never go above 3%. You must tell your acquirer 30 days before you start, post notices where customers enter and where they pay, and show the surcharge as its own line on the receipt. Debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged. Some states add their own limits or block surcharges, and several processors turn the feature off for businesses in those states.
A cash discount program and dual pricing work the other way round: the posted price is the card price and people paying cash get money off. Federal law stops card networks from blocking discounts for cash.
Surcharge, cash discount and dual pricing
These three get mixed up, often on purpose in sales pitches. The difference is which price is the starting point.
| Model | How it works | Debit cards | Main rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit card surcharge | Your posted price is the cash price. A fee is added when the customer pays by credit card. | Cannot be surcharged | Card network rules plus state law |
| Cash discount program | Your posted price includes card costs. Customers paying cash get a discount at the register. | Usually pay the posted card price; ask your processor | Discount must not depend on card issuer or network; state law |
| Dual pricing | You show two prices for each item, one for cash and one for card. | Usually pay the card price; ask your processor | Same as a cash discount, plus how prices are displayed |
Why cash discounts have more room: a federal law, 15 U.S.C. 1693o-2, says a card network may not stop a merchant from offering a discount for paying by cash, check, debit card or credit card. The discount must not treat card issuers or networks differently, and where federal or state law requires it, it must be offered to all buyers and clearly disclosed. The same section lets you set a minimum purchase for credit cards of no more than $10.
A sign that says "3% added for cards" is a surcharge in practice, whatever a sales rep calls it. A cash discount means the card price is the posted price. If a provider pitches "zero-fee processing", ask which of the three models it uses and how it treats debit cards.
What Visa and Mastercard require
Visa publishes a one-page summary, "Merchant Surcharging Considerations and Requirements". The version we read (dated Aug 2023, still linked from Visa's US regulation page in Nov 2026) sets out these rules:
- 30 days' notice. You must notify your acquirer, the bank or processor that handles your card sales, 30 days before you start surcharging. Visa's US regulation page repeats this.
- Credit only. Surcharging applies only to credit transactions in the US and US territories. Debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged.
- No more than your cost. The surcharge must not exceed your cost of acceptance for the credit card. If your cost is above 3% of the sale, you still cannot charge more than 3%.
- Signs and receipts. You must post disclosures at the point of entry and the point of sale, and show the surcharge amount separately on the receipt.
Visa also says plainly that it remains opposed to surcharging. That matters because the networks write the rules your processor enforces.
Mastercard publishes its own US surcharge rules with its own cap. Its pages blocked our checker in Nov 2026, so we do not quote the cap here. Ask your acquirer for Mastercard's current limit. Stax's developer docs point merchants to a Mastercard surcharge disclosure web form as part of setup, so expect a separate step for Mastercard as well.
Your cost of acceptance is the key limit. On Square's Free plan, a $50 in-person sale costs 2.6% + 15¢, which is $1.45, or 2.9% of the sale. A 3% surcharge on that sale would collect more than it costs you. Our guide to interchange explains why the cost differs by card, and rewards card costs covers the cards that cost most.
State rules
State laws on surcharging change, and we could not check every state's statute. We do not publish a state-by-state table for that reason. Here is what we could verify from official or processor pages in Nov 2026.
New York. General Business Law section 518, as shown on the New York Senate's site (last revised Feb 2024), says a seller who adds a credit card surcharge must clearly and conspicuously post the total price for paying by credit card, including the surcharge. The surcharge may not exceed what the card company charges the business, and the final charge cannot be higher than the posted price. The law says it does not stop merchants from offering a two-tier pricing system. Violations carry a civil penalty of up to $500 each.
What processors block. These are product settings, not legal rulings, but they show where processors see risk:
- Square's help center says surcharges cannot be turned on for businesses in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. It lists California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, New York, Oklahoma and Texas as allowed with extra state rules, some with a cap below 3%.
- Helcim says its in-person Fee Saver is not available in Connecticut, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma or Quebec.
- Stax's docs say it applies no surcharge when the billing or shipping address is in a prohibited state or territory. Clover says it onboards US merchants for surcharging except in states with legal restrictions or prohibitions. Neither lists the states on the pages we read.
Notice the lists do not match. If you sell in more than one state, or online to customers everywhere, ask your processor how it decides which rule applies.
Which processors support surcharging
We list only processors whose own pages describe a credit card surcharge feature.
| Processor | What its pages say | Debit handling |
|---|---|---|
| Helcim | Fee Saver adds 3.0% to credit cards in person and online (in most cases; it can vary by card type and international cards). Your cost on those sales is 0%. Online use requires ACH to be enabled. | No fee added. You pay 1.0% + 8¢ per PIN debit sale. |
| Square | Credit card surcharges in open beta for US sellers, capped at 3% and at your cost of acceptance. Works in the POS, Restaurants, Retail and Appointments apps and on Invoices. | No surcharge on debit, ACH, tips, offline or split payments. |
| Clover | Rate varies by merchant, and most US merchants surcharge at 3.00%. Rules are set by the card networks. | Only eligible credit cards; no surcharge on debit or cash. |
| Stax | Surcharging on request. Stax says it handles customer notices and compliance steps. Its docs cover card-not-present sales; card-present needs a call to support. | Debit detected by card number range (BIN); no surcharge. |
Helcim
Helcim's Fee Saver is the most complete published offer. The customer pays 3.0% on credit cards and you pay nothing on those sales. Debit costs you 1.0% + 8¢ per PIN debit sale, and ACH payments cost 0.5% + 25¢, capped at $6. The fee is shown separately on invoices and receipts, and you can switch it off for a single sale. The catch is the state list above and the fact that online use depends on ACH.
Square
Square's surcharge feature is still in open beta. It does not work on Square Kiosk, Virtual Terminal or Square Website sales, and invoices with partial payments or payment schedules are not supported yet. Square gives you a printable sign and asks you to display it at the entrance or counter.
Clover
Clover's developer docs say surcharges apply only to eligible credit cards, tips written on a paper receipt are left out of the calculation, and a partial approval on a surcharged card declines the whole sale. Clover is also sold through banks, so confirm the terms with whoever sold you the system.
Stax
Stax refunds the full surcharge when you refund a sale, prorated on partial refunds. Apple Pay and Google Pay sales are processed without a surcharge because Stax cannot check the card type first. Stax charges a $99 to $199+ monthly subscription on top of interchange, so compare it on total cost; see Stripe vs Stax.
We did not find a published, generally available surcharge feature for Stripe, PayPal or Shopify Payments on the pages we checked, so they are not listed.
What a surcharge saves, and what it does not
A surcharge only touches credit card sales. Debit sales still cost you the normal rate, and so do sales where the card type cannot be checked, such as Stax's wallet payments.
Our ranking engine assumes a mix of 60% credit and 40% debit. At $50K a month in person, it puts Square at $1,450 a month and Helcim at $1,020 (prices checked Oct 2026). A surcharge would cover part of that, never all of it, because the debit share stays your cost. Before you add a fee, it is worth checking whether a cheaper processor gets you most of the way with no customer-facing fee at all. Our processor ranking shows monthly costs at four volumes.
Two more costs are easy to miss. Customers see the fee, and some will pay another way or shop elsewhere. And mistakes, such as surcharging a debit card or skipping the signs, are your responsibility, not the customer's. Read your statement after the first month to confirm what was charged; our guide to reading a merchant statement shows where to look.
Steps before you add a fee
- Check your state's rules, and the rules of states where your online customers live. Use your state attorney general or consumer protection office, not a sales page.
- Ask your processor whether it supports surcharging, cash discounting or dual pricing, how it detects debit cards, and whether it handles network notices for you.
- Give notice. Visa requires 30 days' notice to your acquirer. Ask about Mastercard's form.
- Work out your real cost per card type from a recent statement. Your surcharge cannot exceed it.
- Post signs at the entrance and at checkout, and online before the customer pays.
- Show the fee on receipts as its own line, and refund it when you refund the sale.
- Review after a month. Check that debit cards were not surcharged and that the totals match your posted prices.
For online and phone sales, our note on card-not-present surcharges covers the extra disclosure points.