Florida Credit Card Surcharge Law
Florida credit card surcharge law allows surcharging statewide. The old state ban was ruled unconstitutional in federal court in 2015 and cannot be enforced. Card network caps set the ceiling, and clear disclosure at the door and the counter keeps you inside the rules.
Florida Allows Credit Card Surcharging
A ban sits in the state statutes. It has had no teeth since 2015.
Section 501.0117 of the Florida Statutes is a state law banning credit card surcharges. It is still printed in the statutes today, but it cannot be enforced. It made adding a card surcharge a criminal offense while explicitly allowing cash discounts: the same price difference was legal or illegal depending only on the words on the sign.
In Dana's Railroad Supply v. Attorney General (11th Circuit, 2015), Florida businesses that had received cease and desist letters sued the state and won. The federal appeals court ruled the ban unconstitutional under the First Amendment because it punished how merchants described their prices, and it barred the Attorney General from enforcing the statute.
The legislature has never repealed the statute, which is why search results still contradict each other: some sites see the ban on the books and call Florida a no surcharge state. As of July 2026 nothing has changed: no repeal, no replacement, no new state cap. Surcharging is open in Florida.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| Cap | Card network caps |
| State statute | Section 501.0117, on the books but unenforceable |
| Disclosure | Post at entry and point of sale, itemize on the receipt |
Florida is one of 47 states where surcharging is legal. See the full table at credit card surcharge laws by state.
The Card Networks Set the Ceiling
With no enforceable state cap, Visa and Mastercard's own rules do the work.
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Visa: 3% Cap
In force nationwide since April 2023. Florida has no lower state ceiling.
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Mastercard: 4% Cap
Same network standard as Visa applies, just a higher ceiling.
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Debit Never Surcharges
Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge, in Florida or anywhere else.
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Disclosure Is Mandatory
Post notice at the door and the counter, and show the surcharge as its own line on the receipt.
A Dead Ban Does Not Mean No Ceiling
The end of the state ban is not an open field. Visa's 3 percent and Mastercard's 4 percent still apply to every Florida dealership, and they are the only numbers a dealership needs to run against today. A standard 3 percent credit card surcharge sits inside Visa's cap.
The Deceptive Pricing Law
The surcharge ban is dead. Florida's general pricing law is not.
Section 501.0117 is off the table, but the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA) is fully alive. It never mentions surcharges; it is the state's general law against deceptive pricing, and it applies to every business in the state, dealerships included.
The only way a surcharge trips FDUTPA is by surprising the customer: a fee nobody saw until the receipt printed. Posted notice at the door, notice at the counter, and a printed line item on the receipt take care of it, and the price you quote has to match the price charged.
Post It, Print It
Two habits keep a Florida dealership clear. Disclose the surcharge before the payment runs, at the door and again at the counter. Then print it as its own line on the receipt. Meet both and FDUTPA has nothing to say about your surcharge.
What This Means at the Counter
The counter just needs three things right.
A standard 3% credit card surcharge sits inside Visa's cap and stays disclosed the same way every other surcharging state requires: notice at the point of entry, notice again at the point of sale, and the surcharge itemized as its own line on the receipt. Debit never carries a surcharge, in Florida or anywhere else, no exceptions and no workarounds. We track the state, not your front desk.
Payments post straight to the repair order in CDK Drive, so the surcharge line shows up where your advisors already work. See the full mechanics on the surcharge program page, or walk through exactly what happens at the terminal on the how it works page.
Straight Answers on Florida Rules
Yes. Section 501.0117 bans it on paper, but the 11th Circuit ruled the ban unconstitutional in 2015 in Dana's Railroad Supply v. Attorney General, and the state cannot enforce it. The statute has never been repealed, but it carries no practical weight today.
Yes. With no enforceable state cap, the card network ceilings govern: Visa caps credit card surcharges at 3 percent and Mastercard at 4 percent. A standard 3 percent surcharge sits inside both.
Because the dead statute is still printed in the Florida Statutes. The legislature never repealed it after the 2015 ruling, so sites that only read the statute book call Florida a ban state. The federal court settled it: the ban cannot be enforced.
No. Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge in any state. That is a card network rule, not a state one, and it follows the card itself regardless of how it runs at the terminal.
The dead ban had no surviving disclosure regime, so the card network standard is the rule: notice at the point of entry, notice at the point of sale, and the surcharge as its own line on the receipt. Clear posting also keeps you clear of FDUTPA, Florida's general deceptive pricing law. For program and pricing questions see the FAQ page.
Straight Answers on Florida
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