MerchantLayer
No state statuteLast verified: 2026-08-25

Is credit card surcharging legal in Illinois?

Yes, as far as state law goes. We found no Illinois statute that specifically addresses credit card surcharging. Illinois has no statute banning or capping merchant credit card surcharges. What Illinois does have is the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which targets the fees banks and networks charge merchants on the tax and gratuity portions of a transaction — the opposite side of the ledger from a surcharge. That law has been repeatedly delayed and partly preempted: the OCC issued a preemption order in April 2026 covering national banks and federal savings associations, a federal court expanded an injunction against it, and the legislature pushed its start date again. None of this changes whether you may surcharge in Illinois.

The statute

Citation: Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, 815 ILCS 151 (not a surcharge law)

We have not reproduced operative text here because we could not confirm a clean verbatim quote against the official source. Follow the citation and the source links below.

How much you can charge

No state cap. The binding limits are the card networks: Visa caps a credit card surcharge at the lower of your merchant discount rate or 3% (reduced from 4% effective 15 April 2023) and Mastercard caps it at 4%. Surcharging debit cards is prohibited nationwide.

Disclosure requirements

No state-specific disclosure statute located. Card-network rules still require the surcharge to be disclosed before checkout, itemised as its own line on the receipt, and notified to your acquirer at least 30 days in advance.

Not legal advice

This page 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 Illinois before you implement or change a surcharge.

Putting this into practice on Shopify

Rules like these only help if your checkout can actually enforce them, including on Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Shopify surcharge guideSee FeeLayer