Credit card surcharge calculator
Under Visa's rules you may surcharge credit cards up to your cost of acceptance or 3%, whichever is lower, never on debit, and only where your state allows it.
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Example numbers. Change them to match last month's processing statement.
Credit and debit together.
The rest is debit or prepaid, which can never be surcharged.
Fees on credit card sales divided by credit card sales. Your statement or processor can give you this number.
Only states we have checked against the statute text are listed by name.
The most you may surcharge on credit cards
2.75%
Your cost is under Visa's 3% cap, so your cost is the limit.
What the surcharge would recover
$7,920 a year
About $660 a month
- Credit card sales
- $24,000 a month
- What those credit sales cost you
- $660 a month$7,920 a year
- Visa limit: your cost or 3%, whichever is lower
- 2.75%
- Debit and prepaid sales (never surcharged)
- $16,000 a month
Your card sales carry into the quiz, already filled in.
Assumes the surcharge is a percent of each credit card sale and that no customer switches to debit or cash. Visa also requires 30 days' notice, signs and receipts. General information, not legal advice, as of Oct 20, 2026.
How the math works
- Credit card sales = card sales x the credit card share. $40,000 in card sales at 60% credit is $24,000 on credit cards.
- Visa limit = your credit card cost or 3%, whichever is lower. Visa says that when your cost of acceptance is above 3%, you "cannot assess a surcharge above 3%."
- State check: if your state bans surcharges, the most you may charge is 0%. New Jersey and New York cap the surcharge at your cost, which the Visa limit already respects.
- Recovered = credit card sales x the allowed surcharge, per month, then x 12 for the year.
Debit and prepaid sales are left out on purpose: Visa does not allow surcharges on them, so their fees stay with you. The tool also assumes no customer changes how they pay. In practice some will switch to debit or cash once they see a surcharge.
This is general information, not legal advice, as of Oct 20, 2026. Other card networks have their own rules. For the full state notes, read the surcharge laws by state, and to see what you pay today, use the processing fee analyzer.
Watch out
A surcharge does not lower what processing costs; it moves the cost to your customers. Lowering the rate itself helps every sale, debit included.
Common questions
Sources
- Visa, Merchant surcharging considerations and requirements (2023; "the merchant cannot assess a surcharge above 3%"), accessed Oct 20, 2026
- Visa, Surcharging credit cards: Q&A for merchants ("U.S. merchants cannot surcharge debit card or prepaid card purchases"; 30 days' notice), accessed Oct 20, 2026
- Connecticut General Statutes 42-133ff (Chapter 739), accessed Oct 20, 2026
- Maine Revised Statutes, Title 9-A, 8-509, accessed Oct 20, 2026
- Massachusetts General Laws c.140D, s.28A, accessed Oct 20, 2026
- New Jersey P.L.2023, c.146 (approved Aug 18, 2023), accessed Oct 20, 2026
- New York General Business Law 518, accessed Oct 20, 2026