Indiana Credit Card Surcharge Law
Indiana credit card surcharge law allows surcharging. There is no state statute or state cap for private merchants, so card network rules set the ceiling. A lot of guides also repeat a federal 4 percent cap that simply does not exist, and that gets corrected below.
Indiana Allows Credit Card Surcharging
No statute bans it, caps it, or sets disclosure rules for it. Not one on the books for private merchants.
As of July 2026, Indiana has no state statute that bans, caps, or imposes disclosure requirements on credit card surcharges by private merchants. A dealership charging a standard credit card surcharge is not working around any Indiana law. There simply is not one on the books for a private business like a dealership.
With no state statute to consult, the card network rules do the governing instead, the same way they do in most of the country. See the Rules section below for the two numbers that actually matter, and the Federal Cap section for a claim about Indiana law that gets repeated often and is not true.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| Cap | Card network caps |
| State statute | None for private merchants |
| Disclosure | Card network rules: post it and put it on the receipt |
Indiana 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 state statute on the books, Visa and Mastercard's own rules do the work.
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Visa: 3% Cap
In force nationwide since April 2023. Indiana 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 Indiana 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.
No State Cap Does Not Mean No Ceiling
A missing state statute is not an open field. Visa's 3 percent and Mastercard's 4 percent still apply to every Indiana 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 Federal Cap That Does Not Exist
A number with no statute behind it, repeated until it sounds official.
Search around and plenty of guides and articles about Indiana surcharge law repeat the same line: that the federal government caps credit card surcharges at 4 percent. It gets stated flatly, like settled law. It is not. No federal law caps credit card surcharges. There is no federal statute, and no federal regulator, that sets a 4 percent ceiling or any other percentage ceiling on merchant credit card surcharges.
The real ceilings a dealership runs against come from the card networks, not Congress: Visa caps credit card surcharges at 3 percent, and Mastercard allows up to 4 percent. That 4 percent figure is a Mastercard network rule, and guides that call it a federal cap are simply attaching the wrong source to a real number.
The one federal statute actually in this picture is the Durbin Amendment, and it does not touch credit surcharging at all. It governs debit card interchange, and it is the reason debit cards can never be surcharged anywhere in the country, Indiana included. As of July 2026, that is the full federal role in this topic: debit protection, not a credit surcharge cap.
When Someone Quotes You a Federal Cap
A customer or a controller may bring it up because they read it somewhere. Point to the rules that are actually in force: Visa's 3 percent, Mastercard's 4 percent, and the fact that debit cards are off limits everywhere by federal rule. There is no separate federal credit surcharge cap layered on top.
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 Indiana 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 Indiana Rules
Yes. Indiana has no state statute that bans or caps credit card surcharges for private merchants. Card network rules govern instead.
No. There is no federal law that caps credit card surcharges. The 4 percent figure some guides call a federal cap is actually Mastercard's network cap. Visa's own cap is 3 percent.
No. Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge, in Indiana or any other state. That rule traces back to the federal Durbin Amendment, and it follows the card itself regardless of how it runs at the terminal.
Indiana has no state disclosure statute for private merchants. The standard comes from the card networks: post notice at the point of entry, post it again at the point of sale, and show the surcharge as its own line on the receipt. For pricing and program questions beyond state law, see the FAQ page.
Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts. Surcharging is legal in the other 47 states, Indiana included. See the full table at credit card surcharge laws by state.
Straight Answers on Indiana
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