Surcharge laws,
state by state

Almost every "surcharge laws by state" table on the internet is published by a payment processor, and almost none of them cite the statute. That is a problem, because the penalties are real: Connecticut treats a violation as an unfair trade practice with an additional civil penalty of up to $500 per violation, Minnesota requires you to refund the surcharge to every buyer, and Visa says an acquirer whose merchant is caught surcharging improperly "may be assessed an immediate US $1,000 fine." This page does the thing those tables do not: it quotes the primary source for every jurisdiction it names, and it says plainly where we could not verify a primary source.

Two ground rules before the map. First, this is general information, not legal advice — confirm your own situation with counsel. Second, and more practically: state law and card-brand rules stack. You have to satisfy both, and the stricter one always wins. A state that allows a 5% surcharge does not free you from Visa's 3% ceiling.

Layer one: the card-brand rules apply everywhere

Before any state question, there is a national one. Visa's current U.S. Merchant Surcharge Q and A, published on Visa's own rules page, lists what a U.S. merchant who intends to surcharge is required to do. The requirements, quoted from that document:

• Notify your acquirer at least 30 days prior to commencing surcharging. (Note the change from older guidance: the current document requires notice to your acquirer, not to Visa itself.)
• Include the surcharge amount within a dedicated data field (labelled Field 28) in the transaction message sent to Visa — your acquirer enables this. If your processor cannot populate Field 28, your program is not compliant, no matter how good your signage is.
• Limit surcharging to credit cards only — "debit cards and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged." This holds even when a cardholder selects "credit" on the terminal with a debit card.
• Limit the amount to your merchant discount rate (MDR) for the applicable credit card or 3%, whichever is lowest.
• Disclose the surcharge as a merchant fee and, for both in-store and online transactions, alert consumers "at the point of entry, the point of sale or transaction, and on every receipt."

Visa also states it actively enforces this: "Visa receives numerous consumer complaints and have a yearly mystery shopping by outside auditors," and an acquirer whose merchant is identified as surcharging improperly "may be assessed an immediate US $1,000 fine." That is the part merchants underestimate. Surcharging is not enforced only when a customer sues — it is audited.

If your processor cannot populate Field 28 on the transaction message, your surcharge program is not compliant — regardless of your signage.

Layer two: the states that prohibit surcharging

These are the jurisdictions where a credit-card surcharge is barred by statute. For three of them we read the statutory text directly; for the other two we are relying on Visa's own published position and saying so.

Connecticut — prohibited, and recently rewritten

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 42-133ff(b) is one sentence: "No person may impose a surcharge on any transaction." The statute defines "surcharge" broadly as "any additional charge or fee that increases the total amount of a transaction for the privilege of using a particular method of payment."

Two details that vendor tables consistently miss. First, Connecticut does permit cash discounting — subsection (c)(1) says nothing prohibits "offering a discount on any transaction to induce payment by cash, check, debit card or similar means" — but only if you post notice of it, conspicuously on the premises, on the website or payment app before the transaction completes, and verbally before any telephone transaction. A cash discount without that disclosure is itself a violation. Second, subsection (f) makes any violation "an unfair or deceptive trade practice" under Connecticut's CUTPA statute, and lets the Commissioner of Consumer Protection add a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars per violation. That structure came from the 2022 rewrite (P.A. 22-104), with further amendment by P.A. 24-142.

Note also what is excluded: the definition of "transaction" carves out payments to authorized state agencies, tax payments, municipal charges, and Judicial Branch fees. That is why you can be surcharged paying a state fee in Connecticut but not buying a sandwich.

Massachusetts — prohibited, flatly

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140D, § 28A(a)(2): "No seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check or similar means." Subsection (b) preserves cash discounting: a discount "offered to all prospective buyers" whose "availability is disclosed clearly and conspicuously" is not a finance charge. Massachusetts is the shortest statute on this list and the least ambiguous.

Maine — prohibited, and it covers debit too

Maine is the strictest of the three, and this is the single most misread entry in the entire landscape. 9-A M.R.S. § 8-509(1): "A seller in a sales transaction may not impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card or debit card in lieu of payment by cash, check or similar means." Most states' bans reach credit only. Maine's reaches both. The statute defines a surcharge as "any means of increasing the regular price to a cardholder that is not imposed on a customer paying by cash, check or similar means," and confirms that "a discount or reduction from the regular price is not a surcharge."

Subsection (2) carves out governmental entities, which may surcharge card payments for taxes, fines, utility fees and permits if the fee is disclosed before payment and does not exceed the entity's directly incurred cost — and explicitly may not surcharge debit if no third-party cost is assessed on debit.

Oklahoma and Puerto Rico — prohibited per Visa; we did not verify the statute

Visa's current merchant surcharge Q and A states: "as of February 15, 2024, Visa understands that (i) Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico prohibit surcharging." We independently confirmed Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts against their statutes. We were not able to retrieve and read the Oklahoma or Puerto Rico primary text, so we are reporting Visa's position and attributing it to Visa rather than asserting it ourselves. Visa attaches its own disclaimer to that list, stating that this is Visa's understanding, that it should not be relied on as authoritative information or legal advice, and that merchants should consult a lawyer or other qualified legal professional. If you operate in Oklahoma or Puerto Rico, that is a question for counsel, not for a blog.

Layer three: states that allow surcharging with their own rules

Colorado — 2% cap, or actual cost, plus mandated signage wording

Colorado is the most detailed statute in the country and almost every summary of it is incomplete. C.R.S. § 5-2-212(1)(c) gives a merchant two alternative methods, not one:

• Method one: "An amount not to exceed two percent of the total cost to the buyer or lessee."
• Method two: "An amount not to exceed the merchant discount fee that the seller or lessor incurs in processing the sales or lease transaction," calculated "at an amount not to exceed the actual amount paid to the processor or service provider to process the transaction."

The widely repeated line that "Colorado caps surcharges at 2%" is therefore only half the statute. If your actual merchant discount fee is 2.6%, method two lets you recover 2.6% — provided you use the signage that corresponds to that method.

And the signage is prescribed verbatim by statute. For method one the sign must read: "To cover the cost of processing a credit or charge card transaction, and pursuant to section 5-2-212, Colorado Revised Statutes, a seller or lessor may impose a processing surcharge in an amount not to exceed 2% of the total payment made for goods or services purchased or leased by use of a credit or charge card. A seller or lessor shall not impose a processing surcharge on payments made by use of cash, a check, or a debit card or redemption of a gift card." Method two uses the parallel wording referencing the merchant discount fee. The sign must be posted visibly on premises, or displayed before an online customer completes the transaction. Subsection (1)(d) additionally requires the surcharge amount to appear "as a separate line item on the customer's receipt."

Minnesota — 5% cap, oral disclosure required in person

Minn. Stat. § 325G.051 permits surcharging, but with conditions most merchants would fail by accident. Subdivision 1(a) requires that for an in-person sale the seller inform the customer of the surcharge "both orally at the time of sale and by a sign conspicuously posted" — a sign alone is not enough in Minnesota. For online sales, notice must be posted "during the sale, at the point of sale, on the customer order summary, or on the checkout page." For telephone sales, orally. The statutory cap is five percent of the purchase price — but because Visa's 3% ceiling is lower, 3% is your real limit. Subdivision 1(b) also bars surcharging on a merchant's own private-label card. Subdivision 2: a violator "is subject to a civil penalty of not more than $500 and shall refund the surcharge to each buyer."

New York — the price you post must be the card price

New York's General Business Law § 518 was rewritten effective February 11, 2024, replacing an outright ban with a disclosure-and-cap framework. Under the current law a merchant that surcharges must clearly and conspicuously post the highest total price for the transaction, inclusive of the surcharge — or use two-tier pricing, showing the credit price alongside the cash price. The surcharge may not exceed the amount charged to the business by the credit card company for that card, and violations carry a civil penalty of up to $500 each.

The practical translation: in New York you cannot advertise the cash price and add the fee at the register. The number on the shelf tag has to be the number a card-paying customer will actually pay. (Statute: N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 518. We verified the substance of the February 2024 changes through the Erie County Department of Consumer Protection's published guidance; the New York Senate's statute site blocks automated retrieval, so we are citing the government summary we could actually read rather than pretending otherwise.)

New Jersey — has requirements; we did not verify the text

Visa's current Q and A lists New Jersey among states that "have requirements for surcharging." We were unable to extract the primary statutory text, so we are not going to characterize what those requirements are. Treat New Jersey as "permitted with conditions, confirm the conditions" and ask counsel.

Kansas — legalized with disclosure, effective January 1, 2025

Kansas is the clearest example of why old tables are dangerous. K.S.A. 16a-2-403 used to be a flat ban. In CardX, LLC v. Schmidt, 522 F. Supp. 3d 929 (D. Kan. 2021), the court held the State "was unable to show that statute prohibiting credit card surcharges was tailored to an asserted substantial state interest." The legislature then rewrote the section. As amended (L. 2024, ch. 6, § 51, effective January 1, 2025), the statute now reads that no retailer "may impose a surcharge on a customer who elects to use a credit card as payment unless such person or retailer discloses the amount of such a surcharge through a clear and conspicuous notice to the customer at the point of entry or the point of sale and in advance of such transaction." Kansas is now a permitted-with-disclosure state, not a ban state.

Layer four: the bans that courts struck down

Several states still have no-surcharge statutes on the books that federal appellate courts held unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The statutes were not repealed; they were held unenforceable, in some cases only as applied to the plaintiffs. This is the most legally delicate category on the page and the one where we will give you the least confident answer, on purpose.

• Florida — Fla. Stat. § 501.0117. In Dana's Railroad Supply v. Attorney General, 807 F.3d 1235 (11th Cir. 2015), the Eleventh Circuit struck down the section as an unconstitutional abridgment of free speech, holding the law "directly targets speech to indirectly affect commercial behavior."
• California — Cal. Civ. Code § 1748.1. In Italian Colors Restaurant v. Becerra, 878 F.3d 1165 (9th Cir. 2018), the Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the merchants, holding the statute unconstitutional as applied to those plaintiffs — a narrower holding than a facial invalidation, which is why California remains genuinely unsettled.
• Texas — Visa's own list no longer includes Texas among prohibiting states, and Texas's ban has been the subject of extended First Amendment litigation. We are not going to tell you it is legal or illegal in Texas. That is an attorney question.

Notice that Visa's February 2024 list does not include California, Florida, Texas or Kansas among prohibiting states — which is itself a useful signal about how the card brand currently reads the landscape.

The cash-discount alternative, and how it goes wrong

Every jurisdiction above that bans surcharging still permits a genuine cash discount. That is why so many merchants in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine run dual pricing instead. But "call it a discount" is not a workaround, and Visa's current Q and A is unusually specific about where the line sits.

Per Visa, a merchant offering a cash discount must display prices in one of exactly two ways: "Only the card price per item," or "Both the card and the cash price listed side-by-side per item." And when the cardholder is presented with the final bill, "the total price to be paid on a card must be displayed in full based on the total of the items being purchased as displayed by the merchant and not achieved by applying an additional fee for a card payment" — because doing it that way "may appear to be, and may be treated as, a surcharge and subject to Visa's surcharge rules."

In other words: if your menu shows the cash price and your terminal adds a percentage at the end, you are running a surcharge with a discount's label, and it will be regulated as a surcharge. See our fuller breakdown of cash discounting versus surcharging.

How to actually get this right

• Start with the strictest applicable rule. Multi-state operators must comply per location: Visa states that "the merchant outlet location must follow the state laws which the merchant outlet is located," and that being barred in one state does not bar you in the others.
• Verify Field 28 with your processor in writing. This is the compliance step nobody checks, and it is invisible from the storefront.
• Cap to the lowest number in the stack. Your MDR, 3% (Visa), and any state cap — take the minimum, not the state number.
• Never let a fee touch debit or prepaid. Card-type detection must be configured, not assumed. In Maine, that extends to debit even for the cash-discount question.
• Match your signage to your method. In Colorado the wording is prescribed by statute. In Minnesota you must also say it out loud. In New York the posted price must already include the fee.
• Date your research. Kansas changed in 2025, New York changed in 2024, Connecticut was rewritten in 2022. Re-verify annually and any time you open in a new state.

If you would rather not carry the compliance burden at all, an interchange-plus program with a low, disclosed markup gets you a large share of the savings with none of the signage, registration, or card-type risk.

Frequently asked questions

Which states prohibit credit card surcharges in 2026?

Connecticut (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 42-133ff), Massachusetts (M.G.L. ch. 140D, § 28A) and Maine (9-A M.R.S. § 8-509) prohibit surcharging by statute — we read all three directly. Visa's current merchant surcharge Q and A also lists Oklahoma and Puerto Rico as prohibiting jurisdictions as of February 15, 2024; we did not independently verify those two statutes and are attributing that to Visa. Bans in Florida and California were held unconstitutional by the Eleventh and Ninth Circuits respectively, so those states are unsettled rather than enforced.

What are the credit card surcharge laws by state in 2026?

They fall into four groups. Outright prohibitions: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine (plus Oklahoma and Puerto Rico per Visa). Permitted with state-specific rules: Colorado (2% or actual merchant discount fee, with statutorily prescribed signage), Minnesota (5% cap, oral plus posted disclosure in person, $500 penalty and refund), New York (posted price must include the surcharge; capped at what the card company charges you), New Jersey (requirements exist per Visa). Legalized with disclosure: Kansas, effective January 1, 2025. Everywhere else, the card-brand rules govern.

What are Visa's surcharge rules in 2026?

Per Visa's current U.S. Merchant Surcharge Q and A: notify your acquirer at least 30 days before you start; include the surcharge amount in Field 28 of the transaction message; surcharge credit cards only, never debit or prepaid; cap the fee at your merchant discount rate or 3%, whichever is lowest; and disclose at the point of entry, the point of sale, and on every receipt. Visa says it enforces this with consumer complaints and annual mystery shopping, and that an acquirer may be assessed an immediate $1,000 fine for a merchant surcharging improperly.

Can I surcharge a debit card if the customer runs it as credit?

No. Visa's rule limits surcharging to credit cards only — debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged, and choosing "credit" on the terminal with a debit card does not change that. Maine goes further and prohibits surcharging both credit and debit cards by statute.

Is cash discounting legal in states that ban surcharging?

Generally yes — Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine all expressly preserve discounts for cash. But the structure has to be real. Connecticut requires you to post notice of the discount on premises, online, and verbally by phone. Visa requires that you display either only the card price, or the card and cash price side by side, and that the card total not be produced by adding a fee at the end. A cash discount that is really a surcharge will be treated as a surcharge.

How much can I surcharge in Colorado?

C.R.S. § 5-2-212 gives two options: up to 2% of the total transaction cost, or up to the actual merchant discount fee you incur in processing that transaction. Each option has its own statutorily prescribed signage wording that must be posted on premises or shown before online checkout, and the surcharge must appear as a separate line item on the receipt. Visa's 3% ceiling still applies on top.

Do I have to register before I start surcharging?

Yes. Visa's current requirement is to notify your acquirer at least 30 days prior to commencing surcharging. Your acquirer also has to enable population of Field 28 in the transaction message, which is the technical half of compliance most merchants never confirm. Ask for both in writing before you launch.

What happens if I surcharge in a state that prohibits it?

It varies by state and can stack. In Connecticut a violation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice under CUTPA and the Commissioner of Consumer Protection may add a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation. In Minnesota a violator faces a civil penalty of up to $500 and must refund the surcharge to each buyer. In New York the penalty is up to $500 per violation. Separately, Visa says an acquirer may be assessed an immediate $1,000 fine for a merchant identified as surcharging improperly.