Maryland Credit Card Surcharge Law
Maryland credit card surcharge law allows surcharging statewide, with no state cap on the books. Card network caps set the ceiling, and clear disclosure at the door and the counter keeps you inside the rules.
Maryland Allows Credit Card Surcharging
No statute bans it. No statute caps it. No statute even mentions it.
As of July 2026, Maryland has no state statute in force that bans, caps, or imposes disclosure requirements on credit card surcharges by private merchants. There is no state law to check against, no state agency guidance to read, and no state cap to stay under.
Lawmakers weighed a cap in 2024. House Bill 1481 and its companion bill, Senate Bill 520, would have limited a surcharge to a merchant's actual cost of processing the card. Both bills stalled in committee without a vote, and no similar measure has passed since. Maryland dealerships surcharge under the card network rules, which set both the ceiling and the disclosure standard. That is the whole state story.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| Cap | Card network caps |
| State statute | None. No Maryland statute restricts merchant surcharging |
| Disclosure | No state statute. Card network disclosure rules apply |
Maryland 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 cap 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. Maryland has no state ceiling of its own.
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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 Maryland 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 Statute Does Not Mean No Rules
Visa's 3 percent and Mastercard's 4 percent apply to every Maryland dealership, statute or no statute. A standard 3 percent credit card surcharge sits inside Visa's cap.
The Network Standard Is the Standard
No Maryland disclosure statute exists to layer on top of the network rules.
Maryland has no disclosure statute for credit card surcharges, so the card network standard is the standard in Maryland. That means advance notice to the card networks and your acquirer before you start surcharging, posted notice at the store entrance, the same notice again at the point of sale, and the surcharge itemized as its own line on the receipt. For phone or online sales, disclosure has to land before checkout, not after.
There is no second layer of Maryland-specific wording to add, no separate state notice to post, and no state agency to satisfy beyond the networks themselves.
One Setup Covers It
One clean disclosure setup, network notice, door notice, counter notice, itemized receipt line, satisfies the network rules with nothing extra layered on by the state.
What This Means at the Counter
The counter just needs three things right.
At the counter, a standard 3% surcharge sits inside Visa's cap. Maryland doesn't add a cap of its own. Notice at the door, notice again at the counter, the surcharge on its own receipt line. That's the whole checklist. We track the state, not your front desk.
Customers who pay by credit card cover that 3 percent surcharge. Debit stays untouched, no surcharge, no exceptions. 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 Maryland Rules
Yes. Maryland has no statute banning credit card surcharges. There is no state law that restricts the practice, so surcharging runs under the card network rules instead.
No. Maryland has no state cap on credit card surcharges. A 2024 bill would have capped a surcharge at the merchant's processing cost, but it did not pass. Visa's 3 percent network cap and Mastercard's 4 percent network cap are the numbers that govern instead.
Maryland has no state disclosure statute. The standard comes from the card networks: advance notice before you start surcharging, posted notice at the point of entry, notice again at the point of sale, and the surcharge as its own line on the receipt.
No, never. Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge, in Maryland or any other state. That is a card network rule, and it follows the card itself regardless of how it runs at the terminal.
Yes. Card-not-present payments, phone or online, run through the program the same way, and the 3 percent surcharge with the required disclosure applies there too. For pricing and program questions beyond state law, see the FAQ page.
Straight Answers on Maryland
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