Surcharging

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Overview

Surcharging lets you add a small fee to credit card transactions to recover some of the processing costs you pay when a customer chooses to pay by credit card. Instead of absorbing card fees as a cost of doing business, you can pass a portion of them on to the cardholder at the time of payment. Surcharging on ECRYPT is built to keep you compliant with Card Brand rules and state law. The platform enforces a maximum rate, automatically blocks surcharges where they are not allowed, and only applies them to eligible card types. You stay in control of when a surcharge is applied, while ECRYPT handles the compliance guardrails behind the scenes.

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What Is Surcharging?

A surcharge is a fee added to a transaction when a customer pays with a credit card. It is calculated as a percentage of the sale and is intended to offset the interchange and processing fees associated with accepting that card. Surcharging is different from a convenience fee or a service fee. A surcharge specifically recovers credit card acceptance costs, applies only to credit cards, and is governed by Card Brand rules and state law. Because of this, ECRYPT applies a set of built-in controls so a surcharge is only ever added when it is permitted.

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How ECRYPT Keeps You Compliant

Surcharging is a regulated practice. To protect your business, ECRYPT enforces the following rules automatically on every eligible transaction.

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Maximum surcharge of 3.00%

The surcharge rate on ECRYPT can never exceed 3.00% of the transaction amount. This ceiling is enforced by the platform, so a surcharge above 3.00% cannot be configured or charged. Surcharges are meant to offset your processing costs, not to generate additional revenue.

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Credit cards only (debit and ACH are never surcharged)

Surcharges may only be applied to credit card transactions. Debit cards and ACH (bank account) payments are never surcharged, even when a debit cardholder selects “credit” at checkout. To enforce this, ECRYPT runs a BIN lookup on the card at the time of the transaction. The BIN (the first digits of the card number) identifies the card type. If the card is identified as a debit or prepaid card, or if the payment is an ACH transaction, the surcharge is automatically removed before the customer is charged. This happens behind the scenes across every payment channel, so you never need to check card types yourself.

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Surcharging follows your state’s laws

Some states do not allow surcharging, and others permit it only with specific restrictions. If surcharging is not legal in your state, ECRYPT will not activate it on your account. This keeps you on the right side of state law without requiring you to track the rules yourself.

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Activating Surcharging

Surcharging is activated by request only and cannot be turned on by the merchant from within the dashboard. To enable it on your account, contact your ECRYPT representative. Before activation, ECRYPT confirms that surcharging is permitted in your state; if it is not, the feature will not be turned on. Once surcharging is active on your account, you decide when it applies. You can choose to surcharge on some transactions and not others, giving you full control over how and when the fee is presented to your customers.

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Where Surcharging Is Available

Once enabled, surcharging works across all of the ways you accept payments on ECRYPT: In every channel, the same compliance controls apply: the 3.00% cap, the BIN lookup that excludes debit and ACH, and the state-law check.

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Your Responsibility: Notifying Customers

Even though ECRYPT handles the technical compliance controls, Card Brand rules require you, the merchant, to clearly disclose the surcharge to your customers. This is your responsibility, not something ECRYPT can do on your behalf. To stay compliant, make sure you:

• Notify customers that a surcharge applies before they complete payment, at both the point of entry (for example, your store entrance or website) and the point of sale (the checkout screen).
• Show the surcharge as a separate line item on the receipt so the customer can see the fee clearly, distinct from the purchase total.
• Present the surcharge as a percentage of the sale, consistent with the rate configured on your account.

Clear, upfront disclosure protects you from disputes and chargebacks and keeps you compliant with both Card Brand rules and state requirements.

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Tips & Best Practices

Disclose early and often. The most common cause of surcharge-related disputes is a customer who did not realize a fee was being added. Visible signage and on-screen notices reduce confusion and chargebacks. Surcharge consistently. Because you control when surcharging applies, decide on a clear policy for when you add the fee and apply it the same way each time. Consistency is easier to explain to customers and to defend if questioned. Let the platform do the compliance work. You do not need to manually check whether a card is debit or credit, whether the 3.00% cap is met, or whether your state allows surcharging. ECRYPT enforces all of these automatically once the feature is active. Reach out to enable it. Surcharging cannot be self-activated. If you want to start surcharging, contact your ECRYPT representative, who will confirm eligibility and turn it on for your account.