Amex and Discover Surcharge Rules
American Express and Discover each run their own merchant rules, but neither hands a dealer a separate, higher surcharge number. The rules that actually bind collapse to the same bright lines that govern every card, plus Amex's non-discrimination rule. Plain language, drawn from Amex's own published merchant guidance and the network rules the other brands set.
No Separate, Higher Number
Amex and Discover do not hand a dealer a bigger cap to chase.
American Express and Discover are each their own card network, with their own merchant rulebooks. Neither one publishes a separate, higher surcharge percentage that sits above what Visa already allows. Amex's rule is about parity between the cards you accept, not a bigger number, and Discover's framework broadly mirrors the same bright lines every brand runs on. For a dealership already following those bright lines, adding Amex and Discover to the counter changes nothing about the math.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do Amex or Discover set their own cap? | No cap above the 3% Visa already sets |
| Cards you can surcharge | Credit cards only, never debit or prepaid |
| Advance notice | Notify your processor at least 30 days ahead |
| Disclosure | At the door, at the point of sale, and on every receipt |
The Four Rules That Actually Bind
Everything that governs Amex and Discover at the counter, in four cards.
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Credit Cards Only
Debit and prepaid cards never carry a surcharge, on any brand, even when run as credit at the terminal.
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Your Ceiling Is 3%
Because you also take Visa, capped at 3 percent, and cannot treat one brand worse than another, 3 percent is the real limit across all your cards, Amex and Discover included.
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Notify Your Processor
Tell your processor at least 30 days before you start surcharging.
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Disclose It Clearly
Notice at the point of entry and the point of sale, and a separate line on the receipt.
A Convenience Fee Is Not a Surcharge
Some guides say only government agencies, schools, utilities, and rental businesses can surcharge Amex. That describes Amex's older convenience-fee carve out, a flat fee in an alternate channel limited to certain industries, not a percentage surcharge. A convenience fee and a surcharge are two different things; the surcharge rules on this page are what apply to a dealership taking cards at the counter.
Amex's Non-Discrimination Rule
Amex does not publish its own numeric cap. It publishes a parity rule instead.
Amex is its own network with its own merchant rules, and it was not part of the 2013 Visa and Mastercard changes that reshaped how those two brands handle surcharging.
Amex does not publish its own percentage cap. Its rule is about parity: in Amex's own merchant guidance, a merchant may not impose a fee when an Amex card is accepted that it does not impose equally on the other cards it takes. In plain terms, you cannot single Amex out. You cannot put a surcharge on an Amex card that you do not also apply, on the same terms, to the other credit cards you accept.
The practical effect for a dealership: your Amex surcharge is tied to what you charge on Visa and Mastercard, and it can never be higher. Because Visa caps a credit surcharge at 3 percent, that 3 percent is your ceiling on Amex too.
Credit cards only, disclosed the same three ways as every other brand. State law can tighten this further; the overlay is covered below.
Discover Follows the Same Framework
No separate, higher Discover number to chase either.
Discover is its own network with its own merchant operating regulations, and it permits credit card surcharging. Its rules broadly mirror the framework the other brands use.
There is no separate, higher Discover number to chase. The same bright lines apply: credit cards only, no more than the 3 percent ceiling your Visa acceptance already sets, disclosure at the door, the counter, and on the receipt, and advance notice to your processor.
Discover's full merchant operating regulations are not published publicly; a merchant receives them through its processor. What a dealership needs to act on is the same short list above.
Debit and Prepaid Can Never Be Surcharged
A bright line, with one detail that trips people up.
Absolute across brands: no surcharge on a debit or prepaid card, in any state, no exceptions. Surcharging is for credit cards only.
The detail that trips people up: when a customer runs a debit card and the terminal asks credit or debit, choosing credit does not turn it into a credit card. It stays a debit card and can never be surcharged.
State Law Comes First
Meeting the brand rules is not the whole job.
Meeting a card brand's rules is not the whole job; a surcharge must also be legal in the state where the store sits. As of July 2026, surcharging is legal in 47 states. Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts are the only three that ban it outright, and a handful set their own limits.
Our credit card surcharge laws by state guide breaks down all 50. Visa and Mastercard each publish their own surcharge rules as well.
How This Runs at the Counter
One rulebook at the counter, handled the same way every time.
Debit cards never carry a surcharge on the program, no exceptions, and every credit card transaction is disclosed the way the brands ask for it: a notice at the door, a notice again at the point of sale, and the surcharge itemized on its own line on the receipt. That same disclosure covers phone, text-to-pay, and online-link payments too, not just in-store swipes. Refund a sale and the surcharge comes back with it automatically, in the same proportion: refund it all and the full surcharge returns, refund part of it and only that share does.
The surcharge line posts straight to the repair order in CDK Drive the moment the payment runs, right where your advisors already work. Keeping the program inside every brand's rules is our job, not your front desk's. See the full mechanics on the surcharge program page, walk through what happens at the terminal on the how it works page, or see flat pricing on the pricing page.
Straight Answers on Amex and Discover
No separate higher number. The effective ceiling is the 3 percent your Visa acceptance sets, because you cannot treat one brand worse than another.
Yes, but Amex's non-discrimination rule means you cannot put a fee on an Amex card that you do not also apply equally to the other cards you accept, and never above the 3 percent ceiling.
No. Debit and prepaid cards can never be surcharged, on any brand, in any state.
No. That describes Amex's older convenience-fee carve out, not the surcharge rule. A convenience fee and a surcharge are different things.
Not on its own; state law comes first and three states ban it. Check your state on our surcharge laws by state guide.
Where These Rules Come From
Built from Amex's own published merchant guidance plus the network rules the other brands publish.
This page is built from Amex's own published merchant guidance plus the network rules the other brands publish.
American Express, "Merchant Policies and Procedures" (US merchant regulations).
American Express, "Merchant Reference Guide, U.S." (section 3.2, treatment of the American Express brand).
Visa, "U.S. Merchant Surcharge Q and A" for the 3 percent cap and disclosure rules.
Mastercard, "Merchant surcharge rules" for the cross-brand framework.
Straight Answers on the Card Brand Rules
Run Your Surcharge the Right Way
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