thread SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE in Online Store

SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

ANDREROMANO — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 01:07:05 GMT

Hey everyone,

I’ve been chatting with Square support because I’m thinking about building my online ordering website through Square. I really like the idea of using their loyalty program to help grow the business—even for online customers.

But I ran into a bit of an issue: it seems I can’t pass the card surcharge to customers on online orders. That’s a tough one for me—especially since I’ll need to upgrade my Square subscription and cover the processing fees myself. It doesn’t feel fair that customers who order in-store pay the surcharge, while those who order online don’t.

Has anyone else run into this? Is there any workaround or setting I might be missing? Would love to hear how others are handling this!

Thanks

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

TheRealChipA — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 01:14:59 GMT

Hi there @ANDREROMANO. So let me give you more background about the current state of surcharging. But I want to clarify one thing — currently there is absolutely no surcharging allowed period in the Square ecosystem. If you are adding a surcharge in-person, you should disable it immediately or risk having your account frozen. Please don’t think you can get by here — there are no exceptions right now.

This is, because of the restrictions placed on Square by the card companies (Mastercard, etc), some cards are not allowed to be surcharged to recoup service fees — specifically debit cards, prepaid cards and gift cards. See screen shot below from the Square help document on service charges. It seems that Square is working on a solution that will satisfy the card issuers, but it’s not ready yet.

In order to ensure that customers are paying those fees, most of us just add a flat percentage to our prices. I add 3% when I’m figuring out my costs to arrive at a sales price. And, yes, this means that cash paying customers pay these fees, too. In 10 years of doing this, not one customer has ever said a word. I usually come out a little ahead because of this — and that is the reason we are in business, eh? The best part about doing this is this is how we cost in everything else. People expect it. You do have the option (in most states, be sure to check your state’s laws) to discount customer who pay cash. But even if your state allows that, you have to post signs and notices, which usually makes card paying customers angry and feeling like second-class citizens. But, of course, that is your call.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Honestly, even when Square does implement surcharging, I will never use it. This is because I refuse to patronize businesses who add line items like these that say “convenience fees, etc.” I’d rather that businesses just charge a fair price that makes them money, and not make me have to worry about it or know about it. I can’t count the number of businesses that lost me the first time I saw card surcharges. But, that’s me.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

JodyG7 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:07:30 GMT

I was told that I cannot charge a percentage above what I’m being charged by Square. I’m charged 2.6%, but to charge 3% is a violation known as an illegal profit off the fee. Also Square says I cannot charge a fee on those debit cards. A coffee shop is charging 4% using the Square POS. How is that legal?

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

Slixx — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 05:20:20 GMT

Blaming the credit card companies seems a bit of a cop-out.

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

Eddiemunster — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:42:35 GMT

Hi @ANDREROMANO great question. So what @TheRealChipA said is corrrect for the USA, however in Australia over the counter surcharges, weekend and public holiday surcharges are all acceptable and you can set that up in the Square settings. However, for some reason square online doesn't allow surcharging-possibly becuase of the difference in other countries and the fact that square online works the same for everyone. I also think there maybe some changes coming to square online starting in the USA but I could be wrong so don't take my word for this. I've been pushing this barrow myself for a longtime, however, with the changes to the surcharging rules that are supposed to be coming in later this year in Australia (I'm assuing your from australia or New zealand) that will change everything again. Again I could be wrong but from what I have read the reserve bank is pushing for credit card companies and banks to lower the fees that they charge for each transaction, but I can't personally see them doing this as that's how they make money. I also believe the main focus is Debit cards and not payiing a surcharge to use essentially your own money. Nevertheless the changes will bring about another change for businesses in Australia and also for how we handle it-and I am sure square will have to change things as well as all payment providers.

Just as a side thought. We recently increased our prices with increased costs etc-we do this twice a year. We have chosen to turn off surcharging and build the cost into every purchase so we are not losing out in anyway. It's a small amount to add onto each item so it really doesn't impact our prices significantly. Just a thought.

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

Slixx — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:23:08 GMT

Thanks for your input.

I’m a chauffeur driver andmost of my clients are invoiced based and pay either by direct deposit or via credit card.

30 to 40% of the time my clients asked me to send them an invoice so that they can pay securely online and I wished that Square just gave them the option that if they paid via credit card the surcharge automatically gets added and if they choose to pay a different method then they didn’t have to.

most invoicing programs I’ve tried has this feature. Xero, MYOB & Invoice2Go, but it seems that they are on the stripe ecosystem and stripe allows the surcharging to be passed on.

I have had a lot of other card facilities for example from Banks and others and they all have this option that you can switch on. Square is the only ecosystem I have found that does not have this option for online, or invoicing. it’s really frustrating as I wish I had just one app that covered everything I need, to which Square does about 85%.

I don’t mind if forwarding the surcharge to the customers as an option was only for a paid subscription, to which I already paid for the plus plan that way Square can still make their money regardless if their system is used for payments other than credit cards.

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

TheRealChipA — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 19:17:50 GMT

It's not legal. They will get caught once someone complains. If you feel strongly about that, you should rat them out. My belief is that people who do things like that will get what's coming to them eventually.

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

TheRealChipA — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 19:19:50 GMT

It's not a cop-out. It is just the fact of the way things used to be. You'd know that if you bothered to do research or read. But don't judge my explanations because you don't agree with them. That's disingenuous, especially if you are just substituting your opinion over what is real.

Anyway.... Square create a card surcharge feature that is now part of the service charges section. It meets all of the card networks' requirements and is in line with current regulations and laws. So this entire thread is not moot and outdated, as well as meaningless.

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

Slixx — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 20:26:48 GMT

Stripe, Xero, MYOB and Invoice2Go all offer the option to automatically pass on the surcharge to the customer.

Square don’t off this feature automatically and don’t offer it at all for Square Invoicing. I would be happy to pay for it as a feature of my plus plan

Again, it’s not the credit card companies, Square just don’t want to have this feature as part of their ecosystem.

I guess someone has a real ChipA on the shoulders. Defender of the Square Universe.

Re: SQUARE ONLINE - CARD SURCHARGE

Slixx — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 22:25:20 GMT

The world doesn’t revolve around the US unfortunately. Being a rat won’t do anything as my laws allow me to do it, as do many other countries around the world.

it’s about being transparent about the charges rather than being sneaky and hiding them within your costs.

Square already customises their software for local laws and for how different users use the software from different countries., I’m not sure why they can’t do it for surcharges