There is no prohibition for credit card surcharges and no statute on discounts for different payment methods. Retailers may not impose credit card surcharges but may offer discounts for payment by cash, check or other methods unrelated to credit cards.
Can You charge customers American Express fee?
- It seems that you can charge a convenience fee as long as: You do not discriminate against the use of the American Express card (Section 2.3, fifth bullet point), and You disclose the fee to the cardholder and give the cardholder a chance to back out.
Can businesses charge a fee for paying with a credit card?
- For one, the business has to notify the appropriate credit card associations and clearly disclose that it charges a fee for the use of a credit card. Credit card surcharges can’t exceed the cost of accepting the card or four percent, whichever is the lowest amount, even if it costs the business over that amount to process your credit card payment.
Does PayPal charge fees to customer?
- We charge you a fee for each payment you send using PayPal Payouts. The fee is based on the type of payment and currency in which it is sent. When you accept the User Agreement, you may apply to receive Micropayments pricing for certain lower value transactions processed through your PayPal account for the sale of goods and services.
Is it illegal to charge customers for credit card purchases?
- The short answer is yes, it is legal for a merchant to impose a surcharge. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2017 protected surcharges as a form of free speech from merchants. Retailers can also require a minimum purchase amount when you use credit cards.
Convenience fees fall under a merchant's agreement with a card network. Each network has rules about when and how a merchant can assess a convenience fee. In general, merchants have to tell customers about the fee before the transaction and then list the fee clearly on a receipt.