A surcharge is a percentage added to a credit card payment to cover what accepting the card costs you. A convenience fee is a flat fee for paying through a channel outside the ones you normally offer, such as online for a business that usually takes payment in person. On payment plans the difference decides it: Visa's rules don't allow a convenience fee on a recurring or installment transaction, so the fee you can add to plan payments, where your state allows one, is a surcharge on credit cards.
What is a surcharge?
A fee added to a payment because the customer paid with a credit card. Visa's rules for US merchants who surcharge:
- Credit cards only. Debit and prepaid cards can't be surcharged, even when a debit cardholder picks "credit" on a terminal.
- Capped. No more than your merchant discount rate for that card, or 3%, whichever is lower.
- Notice first. Tell your acquirer (your processor) at least 30 days before you start.
- Disclosed three times. At the point of entry, at the point of sale, and as a separate line on every receipt, online and in person.
What is a convenience fee?
A fee for a genuine convenience: paying through an alternative channel outside your usual ones. Visa's current rules (April 2026) say a convenience fee must be:
- Charged for the alternative channel, not just for accepting a card.
- Only on card-absent payments (online, phone, mail), and not by a business that only ever takes card-absent payments.
- Applied to every form of payment in that channel, not just cards.
- A flat or fixed amount, whatever the size of the payment.
- Disclosed before the payment is completed, with a chance to cancel.
- Never added on top of a surcharge.
- Never charged on a recurring or installment transaction.
Which one can go on a payment plan?
A surcharge, not a convenience fee. Plan payments are installment transactions, which Visa's convenience-fee rules exclude. If you want card payments on a plan to carry their own cost, the route is a disclosed credit card surcharge, inside the cap, where your state allows it, with a bank-transfer option that carries no card fee.
How do they compare?
| Surcharge | Convenience fee | |
|---|---|---|
| What it pays for | Accepting a credit card | An extra payment channel |
| Amount | A percentage, up to the lower of your rate or 3% | A flat amount |
| Cards it applies to | Credit only, never debit or prepaid | All payments in that channel |
| On plan payments | Allowed, where your state allows it | Not allowed |
| Disclosure | Entry, point of sale, every receipt | Before the payment, with a chance to cancel |
Which states restrict surcharging?
Visa's own guidance lists the states it understands to prohibit or limit surcharging, as of 15 February 2024: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico prohibited it, and Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York set their own requirements. Visa says that list may contain errors and isn't legal advice. Louisiana bans surcharges on debit cards from 1 August 2026. State rules change. Check your own state's law before you set a surcharge.
Is a cash discount different?
Yes. Visa lets a business offer a discount for paying another way, but the card price has to be the price shown: either the card price alone or the card and cash prices side by side. A "discount" that works by adding a fee to card payments at the end is treated as a surcharge.
This page uses Visa's published rules. Mastercard and the other networks publish their own, and your processor applies them. General information, not legal advice.
- Visa: U.S. Merchant Surcharge Q and A
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026, section 5.5.2.1, Convenience Fees
- Louisiana Act 751 of 2026 (SB 254), signed 2 June 2026, effective 1 August 2026
Every figure on this page was checked against these sources on Oct 6, 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.