Three pricing programs.
One simple choice.

A surcharge is a small fee added to a credit card payment to offset the cost of processing that transaction. On our program the surcharge is 3%, and it appears as its own line item at checkout and on the receipt. Patients who pay another way — cash, check, or a debit card — do not pay it. In short, the patients who choose the convenience of credit cover the cost of that convenience, and your listed prices never move.

Both offset processing — they just present it differently. Cash Discount builds the cost into your listed prices and gives cash payers a discount, so your effective rate lands at virtually 0%. Surcharging leaves your listed prices untouched and adds a visible 3% line to credit card payments only.

Cash Discount tends to be the smoother patient experience, which is why most practices choose it. Surcharging is a clean, transparent option if you’d rather leave your posted prices exactly as they are.

Yes — and we handle it. Before a surcharge program can go live, the card networks require at least 30 days of advance written notice to your acquirer (the bank that processes your card transactions). We take care of that notification and the technical setup on the terminal as part of onboarding, so your program is compliant from day one instead of something you have to sort out yourself.

Merchants can surcharge at the brand level (a set rate across a card network’s credit cards) or the product level (specific card products). We configure a compliant brand-level 3% program, which is the simplest and most common approach for a practice.

It’s permitted in most states, but a handful restrict or ban it. As of 2026, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine prohibit credit card surcharging outright. A few states add conditions — for example, Colorado caps surcharges at 2%, and New York requires the total price (including the surcharge) to be posted up front. California and Texas have bans on the books that federal courts have found unconstitutional, which leaves those two as a gray area.

Here in Florida, surcharging is permitted. Wherever your practice operates, we confirm the current requirements for your state before you launch — and if surcharging isn’t a clean fit there, we’ll tell you plainly and point you to Cash Discount instead.

No. Debit and prepaid cards can never be surcharged — even when the card is run as credit at the terminal. Federal rules (the Durbin Amendment) and card network rules prohibit it nationwide. Your Clover device checks the card type automatically and only applies the surcharge to credit cards, so this stays compliant with no extra thinking at the front desk.

Two limits set the ceiling. Visa lowered its surcharge cap to 3% in April 2023, and Mastercard’s cap is 4% — so for any practice that accepts both (nearly all do), 3% is the effective maximum.

Just as important, a surcharge is cost recovery only. It can never exceed what you actually pay to accept the card. If your true cost of acceptance is below 3%, we set the surcharge at that lower number so your program stays inside the rules. A surcharge is meant to offset processing, not to become a profit center.

Full transparency — which is exactly what the rules require. There’s signage at the point of entry, a clear notice on the Clover screen before the patient pays (the point of sale), and the surcharge shows up as its own separate line on the receipt with the exact dollar amount. Nothing is buried, which keeps both the card networks and your patients comfortable.

Non-compliant surcharging — charging debit cards, exceeding the cap, or skipping the required disclosures — can trigger steep card-network fines and, in serious cases, loss of card acceptance. That’s precisely why we handle registration, cap enforcement, automatic debit detection, and the disclosure setup for you, rather than leaving any of it to chance.