Join the growing number of businesses improving their bottom line with Empire Pays’ simple and compliant credit card surcharge program. Our hassle-free solution allows businesses to significantly reduce or even eliminate traditional credit card processing fees.
Using your current merchant processing statements, our team will prepare a detailed savings analysis to show how much your business could save by implementing a surcharge program. We’ll walk you through the process, ensure compliance, and help determine whether surcharging is the right fit for your business.
Non-Cash Adjustment (“Surcharge”) is an extra fee charged by a merchant when accepting
credit cards as a payment option. Not all states allow surcharging; questions about the legality of surcharging in a state should be directed to the merchant’s legal counsel. It is your responsibility to ensure compliance with state laws and card brand rules regarding surcharging.
Empire Pays offers a fully compliant credit card surcharge program designed to help businesses reduce processing costs while meeting all card brand and banking regulations. Our system ensures surcharges are applied correctly and within permitted limits.
Our surcharge program is available through the Deluxe Payments Platform and supported by popular terminals including the Dejavoo QD2, Dejavoo QD4, PAX A80, and PAX A920. These secure, PCI-compliant devices offer reliable, user-friendly technology for smooth and efficient payment processing.
The rules strictly prohibit merchants from surcharging debit or prepaid cards, regardless if signature or PIN is used for cardholder verification. The approved hardware will automatically perform a BIN lookup to apply the “surcharge” to Credit transactions ONLY.
Merchants must register their intent to surcharge with our processing bank at least 30 days prior to beginning a surcharge program.
The final surcharge (sometimes referred to as a Service Charge) amount must be itemized as a separate line item on the sales receipt. If an item is returned, a proportional amount of the original surcharge must be refunded to the cardholder.
Merchants must prominently display their surcharge policy, which Empire will provide. This policy must not disparage the card brand, network, issuing bank or payment card product being used. Retail merchants must post signage at the point of entry to the physical store and at the point of sale. Online merchants must disclose the policy at the time payment types are mentioned and on the checkout page. Customers must also have the opportunity to opt-out of the sale or pay by other means before the surcharge is added to the sale.
Failing to follow proper credit card surcharging regulations can expose businesses to significant penalties. Non-compliance may result in substantial fines, termination of credit card processing privileges, or placement on the MATCH list (formerly TMF) which can make it difficult to obtain merchant services in the future.
Common violations include exceeding the permitted surcharge percentage (3% maximum) or incorrectly applying surcharges to debit card transactions. Card networks routinely monitor merchants for compliance and may conduct audits, including mystery shopper transactions, to verify proper surcharge practices.
With Empire Pays, merchants receive the guidance, technology, signage, and support needed to implement a secure, compliant surcharge solution while confidently reducing credit card processing expenses.