You may choose to offset your credit card processing fees by transferring a portion of the cost to your customer through a credit card surcharge. Credit card surcharges are an additional fee applied to any transaction paid with a credit card at the time of sale. These fees are typically a percentage of the total bill added as a separate line item.

Excluded transaction types

The following transaction types will not include surcharges:

• Transactions containing a tip
• Transactions containing an overpayment
• Card not present transactions
• On account transactions
• Transactions processed in offline mode

Debit cards and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged.

Regulations regarding surcharging

If you choose to add credit card surcharges to your business, there are a number of rules and regulations that must be followed to ensure full transparency and compliance.

The examples below highlight some of the common policies involved in surcharging and are not an exhaustive list.

• You must disclose surcharges as a merchant fee and clear signage must alert customers of the surcharge at the point of entry, the point of sale, and on every receipt.
• Third parties are not permitted to impose a surcharge. Surcharges must be applied by the merchant through their POS or card processor.
• The surcharge amount must not exceed the processing rate you are being charged by your payment processor.
• The cardholder must be given the opportunity to cancel, without penalty, after the surcharge is disclosed.
• Surcharges can only be assessed on the final total amount charged for the goods or services, after any discount has been applied.

Regulations vary depending on your region. For a full list of regulations, contact your local regulators.

• Australia

  If you choose to add credit card surcharges to your business, there are a number of rules and regulations that must be followed to ensure full transparency and compliance. These examples have been selected to highlight some of the common policies involved in surcharging and are not meant to serve as an exhaustive list. Regulations vary depending on your region. For a full list of regulations, contact your local regulators.

  • You must disclose surcharges as a merchant fee and clear signage must alert customers of the surcharge at the point of entry, the point of sale, and on every receipt.
  • Third parties are not permitted to impose a surcharge. Surcharges must be applied by the merchant through their POS or card processor.
  • The surcharge amount must not exceed the processing rate you are being charged by your payment processor.
  • The cardholder must be given the opportunity to cancel, without penalty, after the surcharge is disclosed.
  • Surcharges can only be assessed on the final total amount charged for the goods or services, after any discount has been applied.

• Canada

  Surcharging for this region is currently in beta and may not be available in your account or area.

  If you choose to add credit card surcharges to your business, there are a number of rules and regulations that must be followed to ensure full transparency and compliance. These examples have been selected to highlight some of the common policies involved in surcharging and are not meant to serve as an exhaustive list. Regulations vary depending on your region. For a full list of regulations, contact your local regulators.

  • In advance to the surcharge taking effect, you must notify Mastercard using their web form.
  • The surcharging rate can never exceed 2.4%.
  • Only credit cards can be surcharged (debit cards and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged).
  • You must disclose surcharges as a merchant fee and clear signage must alert customers of the surcharge at the point of entry, the point of sale, and on every receipt.
  • The cardholder must be given the opportunity to cancel, without penalty, after the surcharge is disclosed.
  • Surcharges can only be assessed on the final total amount charged for the goods or services, after any discount has been applied.
  • Surcharging cannot be enabled for locations in the province of Quebec.

• USA

  Surcharging for this region is currently in beta and may not be available in your account or area.

  If you choose to add credit card surcharges to your business, there are a number of rules and regulations that must be followed to ensure full transparency and compliance. These examples have been selected to highlight some of the common policies involved in surcharging and are not meant to serve as an exhaustive list. Regulations vary depending on your region. For a full list of regulations, contact your local regulators.

  • In advance to the surcharge taking effect, you must notify Mastercard using their web form.
  • Only credit cards can be surcharged (debit cards and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged).
  • The surcharging rate can never exceed 3%.
  • You must disclose surcharges as a merchant fee and clear signage must alert customers of the surcharge at the point of entry, the point of sale, and on every receipt.
  • Surcharging is not available for locations in all states, including: CT, MA, ME, NY, PR.

  You are responsible for ensuring that you follow surcharging rules and regulations and are responsible for any non-compliance. It's recommended to seek independent counsel before enabling surcharging.

Note: Cash discounting is no longer available. To add credit card surcharges, use the surcharging feature.

Setting up surcharging with Lightspeed Payments

Surcharges can be added as a separate line item to a transaction through Lightspeed Payments. Options can be found in the Financial services section of Retail POS. Note that surcharging is only available when using the At Sale payment authorization and capturing option with Lightspeed Payments.

Merchants using integrated accounting can map surcharging fees in Xero. Quickbooks does not support surcharging reconciliation.

To enable and configure your surcharging settings:

1. Navigate to Finance > Terminals tab.
2. To the right of the location name, click Settings.

   

3. On the terminal settings page, toggle on Surcharging.

   

4. Click Save at the bottom of the page.
5. Restart your payment terminal to update your surcharging settings.

Customers will now be prompted to pay for the transaction fees on the terminal. 

Surcharging during a sale

Surcharging only works with credit cards. The payment terminal will not process a surcharge on a debit or combination debit/credit card.

When you process a sale with surcharging enabled, a credit card transaction sent to the payment terminal will show:

• Total of the payment to be processed (ex. CA $15.00)
• Tap or insert card prompt
• A surcharging disclosure

The customer can then terminate the sale if desired, otherwise they can proceed with the payment by tapping or inserting their credit card. Once the payment has processed successfully, the payment terminal will show:

• Total, including the surcharging amount (ex. CA $15.36)
• Approved confirmation
• Includes [amount] surcharge message (ex. Includes CA$0.36 surcharge).

  

After the payment is complete, the terminal will return to the home screen.