Credit card surcharge laws by state.
Surcharging is lawful in most of the United States, but the interesting detail is never the headline answer. It is which state caps the fee, which one dictates where the notice has to appear, and which one still has an unenforceable ban sitting in its code. This index gives the status for all 50 states, with the statute, the cap, the disclosure rule and the sources we checked. Where we could not confirm an entry against a state legislature, a state attorney general or a court, we say so on the page rather than filling the gap.
Last verified: 2026-08-25. 29 of 50 state entries are marked as needing review.
A state statute bans merchant credit card surcharges and is enforced.
Surcharging is possible, but a state statute or a state enforcement position adds caps or disclosure duties beyond card-network rules.
No state restriction beyond card-network rules, with an affirmative signal that surcharging is lawful.
No state statute specifically addresses credit card surcharging. Card-network rules and federal law still apply.
State law is only half the picture. Even where a state is silent, the card networks bind you: Visa caps a credit card surcharge at the lower of your merchant discount rate or 3% (reduced from 4% effective 15 April 2023), Mastercard caps it at 4%, and surcharging debit cards is prohibited nationwide. Where a state cap is lower than the network cap, the state cap is the one you will hit first.
All 50 states
| State | Status | Cap | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Alaska | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Arizona | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Arkansas | Restrictedunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| California | Restricted | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Colorado | Restricted | State cap: the lesser path of 2% of the total transaction or the merchant discount fee actually incurred. | 2026-08-25 |
| Connecticut | Prohibited | No cap exists because no surcharge is permitted. | 2026-08-25 |
| Delaware | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Florida | Permitted | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Georgia | Restricted | Cost-of-acceptance cap in practice: the Attorney General states the surcharge cannot exceed what the merchant pays to accept the card, generally two to three percent. | 2026-08-25 |
| Hawaii | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Idaho | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Illinois | No state statute | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Indiana | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Iowa | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Kansas | Restricted | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Kentucky | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Louisiana | Restricted | Louisiana sets no cap on credit card surcharges; the debit prohibition is the state-law constraint. | 2026-08-25 |
| Maine | Prohibited | No cap, because sellers may not surcharge at all. | 2026-08-25 |
| Maryland | No state statute | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Massachusetts | Prohibited | No cap exists because no surcharge is permitted. | 2026-08-25 |
| Michigan | Restrictedunder review | No verified state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Minnesota | Restricted | State cap of 5%, but the card networks are stricter: Visa 3% and Mastercard 4%. | 2026-08-25 |
| Mississippi | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Missouri | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Montana | No state statuteunder review | We found no Montana cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Nebraska | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Nevada | Restricted | No statutory cap located; the Attorney General's stated limit is the merchant's actual cost of acceptance. | 2026-08-25 |
| New Hampshire | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| New Jersey | Restricted | State cap: the actual cost to the seller of processing the credit card payment. | 2026-08-25 |
| New Mexico | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| New York | Restricted | State cap: the amount the credit card company charges the business — your cost of acceptance. | 2026-08-25 |
| North Carolina | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| North Dakota | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Ohio | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Oklahoma | Restricted | State cap: the lesser of 2% of the transaction or the actual processing cost. | 2026-08-25 |
| Oregon | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Pennsylvania | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Rhode Island | No state statuteunder review | We found no Rhode Island cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| South Carolina | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| South Dakota | Restricted | Cost-of-acceptance cap per state consumer-protection guidance, described as roughly 1.5% to 4% of the transaction. | 2026-08-25 |
| Tennessee | Restricted | No statutory cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Texas | Restricted | No usable state cap, because the statute is a prohibition rather than a ceiling and its enforceability is contested. | 2026-08-25 |
| Utah | Restricted | No statutory cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Vermont | No state statuteunder review | We found no Vermont cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Virginia | Restricted | No state cap on the surcharge amount; the rule is about price display. | 2026-08-25 |
| Washington | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| West Virginia | No state statuteunder review | No state cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Wisconsin | No state statuteunder review | We found no Wisconsin cap. | 2026-08-25 |
| Wyoming | No state statuteunder review | We found no Wyoming surcharge cap. | 2026-08-25 |
This index is a research summary for merchants, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Surcharge rules change, they interact with card-network rules and federal law, and they can turn on facts specific to your business. Consult licensed counsel in every state you sell into before you implement or change a surcharge. MerchantLayer makes no warranty of accuracy or fitness for a particular purpose.
Enforcing this on Shopify
Knowing the rule is the easy part. The hard part is a checkout that applies the right fee in the right state and still holds up on Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay.