What Is Surcharging?

Dual pricing itself is federally protected in all 50 states under the Durbin Amendment, even in states that restrict traditional surcharging, per strictlyzero.com's 2026 merchant compliance guide. Outright surcharge bans remain in place in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico as of 2026, and New York requires a strict Total Price disclosure rule that makes it illegal to post a price and add a card surcharge afterward. California's own statutory surcharge ban was found unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit, so surcharging with proper disclosure is generally permitted there under current enforcement guidance, though the state's separate drip-pricing law still restricts a surcharge shown as a bolt-on line item, per intellipay.com's 2026 guide.

The card-brand surcharge cap itself is a genuinely unresolved question worth flagging clearly rather than stating as settled fact: Visa's own published compliance guidance from May 2022 caps surcharges at 4%, even where a merchant's actual discount rate runs higher, per ccsalespro.com's explainer on Visa compliance. A separate 2026-dated guide instead states that Visa and Mastercard enforce a maximum surcharge cap of 3% as of early 2026, per strictlyzero.com. These may reflect a real rule change between 2022 and 2026, or one source may simply be imprecise, and neither figure should be treated as confirmed current policy without checking Visa and Mastercard's own current operating regulations directly.

Beyond the cap question, the mechanics are more settled: Visa requires merchants to notify Visa and their acquirer at least 30 days before starting to surcharge, every receipt has to show the surcharge as its own line item, and surcharging only applies to credit cards, never debit or prepaid.