Non Cash Charge

[urs]

Can we set up a Non Cash Charge or Convenience Fee for customers who pay with a credit card?

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Hi @urs .  Yours is a popular question here in the Community these days.  Here’s a copy/paste of my standard answer to this question, current as of today’s post.

First, you have to get permission from/notify Visa/MC/etc of your intention to add surcharges for CREDIT card customers.  Once you have notified Visa/MC, and figured out a way to avoid charging debit cards, prepaid cards and Afterpay transactions the surcharge (since they are never allowed), and once you have ensured that your state allows credit card surcharges (about half of the states don’t allow them, and some states don’t allow my suggested cash discount work-around below either), then you can create a surcharge item from your dashboard — go to Account & Settings -> Service Charges to create it.  There are details notes and help there for how to apply them to online sales.

Your safer bet would be to add the expected card fees to the price of each item, and then offer a cash discount to those who pay with cash.  Just remember that some states might not allow this (CA for example does allow different prices for differently-paying customers, but other states still might not), and that you have to clearly post in your business the fact that you offer cash discounts.

And, I can’t stress enough that there are restrictions, limitations and sometimes ever prohibitions for surcharges.  I just hate to see fellow sellers get into a jackpot.

Here’s a link to a great resource on the subject from the National Council of State Legislatures.  It summarizes and keeps track of changes to state laws on the subject of surcharges, cash discounting, and other vital business topics.

Best of luck.  Let me know if you have any further questions.

[urs · Accepted solution]

Thanks 🙂  I'm in Iowa!

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Hi @urs .  Yours is a popular question here in the Community these days.  Here’s a copy/paste of my standard answer to this question, current as of today’s post.

First, you have to get permission from/notify Visa/MC/etc of your intention to add surcharges for CREDIT card customers.  Once you have notified Visa/MC, and figured out a way to avoid charging debit cards, prepaid cards and Afterpay transactions the surcharge (since they are never allowed), and once you have ensured that your state allows credit card surcharges (about half of the states don’t allow them, and some states don’t allow my suggested cash discount work-around below either), then you can create a surcharge item from your dashboard — go to Account & Settings -> Service Charges to create it.  There are details notes and help there for how to apply them to online sales.

Your safer bet would be to add the expected card fees to the price of each item, and then offer a cash discount to those who pay with cash.  Just remember that some states might not allow this (CA for example does allow different prices for differently-paying customers, but other states still might not), and that you have to clearly post in your business the fact that you offer cash discounts.

And, I can’t stress enough that there are restrictions, limitations and sometimes ever prohibitions for surcharges.  I just hate to see fellow sellers get into a jackpot.

Here’s a link to a great resource on the subject from the National Council of State Legislatures.  It summarizes and keeps track of changes to state laws on the subject of surcharges, cash discounting, and other vital business topics.

Best of luck.  Let me know if you have any further questions.

[TheRealChipA]

@urs 

And please note that after posting, I corrected a typo that was important above.  CA does allow cash discounting.  I had doesn’t before, because I was going too fast.  Most, if not all, states allow it any more I believe.  The few who didn’t allow it changed it a few years ago to conform to the prevailing national mood on the subject!  Sorry for the typo and confusion!!!!

[urs · Accepted solution]

Thanks 🙂  I'm in Iowa!

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Seems you should be in the clear then.  Just remember that going the surcharge route will require you to trust your employees to actually look at a card to be sure it is not debit or prepaid, because Visa/MC do not allow them to have a surcharge added.

The cash discount route seems to be wide open to you.  It will just take time to change your prices and then post a positive notice somewhere.  “Now offering 3% cash discounts!” Or something uplifting.  Of course, card customers will grouse sometimes, but that’s the case no matter what you do!

[JJ95]

I am curious on why you can do a non-cash discount on a regular CC terminal, where the fee is recouped from the client who is paying for a service, but we can set this up as an option on  square, or can we but it is called something else?

[frances_a]

Hey @JJ95 !

Welcome to our Seller Community, we're always happy to see new faces. 

Check out this article on getting started with Service Charges. I believe it might help you achieve what you're wanting to do. 

Please still consider your state's regulations, there's a great resource one of our Super Sellers shared above in this thread.

Thank you!