Surcharges – OPUL

Surcharges are an additional fee that a practice adds to a patient’s bill when the patient uses a card for payment. (e.g., a 2% fee of the cost of the product).

Card brands and state law, as applicable, have many requirements to be eligible to include a surcharge. There are also restrictions and requirements for the use of those surcharges.

Some of these requirements include:

Notification to the card brand and acquirer of intent to include a surcharge at least 30 days in advance. No surcharge can be implemented without processor approval
Ensuring that any surcharge does not exceed the merchant discount rate (MDR), or a lower rate imposed by the card brand or state requirements. (E.g., Visa currently caps surcharges at 3% and several states have additional rules about what is allowed for surcharges)
Disclosing the surcharge fee(s) in-store and online if applicable. The minimum requirements are at the point of entry and point of sale in the physical store location
Surcharges can only be made to credit cards and are prohibited on debit cards, prepaid cards, or similar options, even if the “credit” option of a debit card is used
A separate line item on any receipt for the surcharge
Use of the term “surcharge” to describe the fee
For refunds, the surcharge must also be fully refunded; where a partial refund is made, the surcharge must be prorated
Surcharges must not be described as mandatory or as only being implemented to cover credit card costs. It must be clear that the practice is implementing the surcharge based on their own decision

OPUL does not allow its practices to apply surcharges on any transactions processed through OPUL pursuant to internal policy and due to the strict requirements and regulations around surcharges.

References:

Visa, Merchant Surcharging Considerations and Requirements

Visa, Merchant Surcharge Q&A

Visa, Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules

Mastercard, What merchant surcharge rules mean to you

Mastercard, Merchant Surcharge FAQs

Mastercard, Mastercard Rules

Have Questions? Contact OPUL Customer Support at

hello@OPUL.com or (925) 678-5377 for assistance

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