Michigan Credit Card Surcharge Law
Michigan credit card surcharge law allows surcharging statewide, with no state cap on the books. A 2013 bill to ban surcharges never passed. Card network caps set the ceiling, and clear disclosure at the door and the counter keeps you inside the rules.
Michigan Allows Credit Card Surcharging
No statute bans it. No statute caps it. A bill that would have done both never became law.
Michigan has no statute banning or capping credit card surcharges. In 2013, House Bill 4255 was introduced to amend the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, MCL 445.903, to prohibit surcharges. It never passed, and the current text of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act contains no surcharge provision. Nothing has changed as of July 2026.
Michigan dealerships surcharge under the same rules that apply in most of the country: the card networks set the ceiling, not the state.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| Cap | Card network caps |
| State statute | None. A 2013 ban bill, HB 4255, never passed |
| Disclosure | No state statute. Attorney General guidance recommends clear posting |
Michigan 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
Or your actual cost of acceptance, whichever is lower.
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Mastercard: 4% Cap
Same actual cost logic as Visa, just a higher ceiling.
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Debit Never Surcharges
Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge, in Michigan 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.
Lesser of Actual Cost, Always
Your surcharge can never exceed what card acceptance actually costs you, no matter what the network cap allows. A flat 3% works for most dealerships because it sits right at Visa's ceiling without stepping over it.
What Michigan Expects on Disclosure
No disclosure statute exists. The Attorney General's guidance fills the gap.
Michigan has no disclosure statute written into law for credit card surcharges. What exists instead is non-binding consumer guidance from the Michigan Attorney General's office, aimed at keeping surcharges visible rather than sprung on a customer at checkout.
That guidance recommends three things: a posted notice at the store entrance, the same notice repeated at the point of sale, and the surcharge itemized as its own line on the receipt. For online sales, the guidance recommends disclosure on the first page where credit cards are mentioned, so the customer sees it before they reach checkout.
The Same Disclosure You Already Owe the Networks
None of this asks for anything beyond what Visa and Mastercard already require. A program that posts notice at the door, posts it again at the counter, and itemizes the surcharge on the receipt satisfies the card network rules and the state's guidance in the same motion.
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. Michigan 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.
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.
One more wrinkle: Michigan taxes the surcharge itself. Since May 2024, Michigan Department of Treasury guidance treats a credit card surcharge as part of the taxable sales price under the General Sales Tax Act, so the state's 6 percent sales tax applies to it too. How that lands in your books is a question for your accountant or tax advisor, not something we handle or calculate for you.
Straight Answers on Michigan Rules
Yes. Michigan has no statute banning credit card surcharges. A 2013 bill, House Bill 4255, would have amended the Michigan Consumer Protection Act to prohibit them, but it never passed.
Yes. With no state cap, Visa's 3 percent ceiling governs, as long as the surcharge does not exceed your actual cost of acceptance. Mastercard allows up to 4 percent under the same lesser-of-actual-cost rule.
No. Michigan has no state cap. The Michigan Consumer Protection Act, MCL 445.903, contains no surcharge provision, so the card network caps, 3 percent for Visa and 4 percent for Mastercard, are what actually apply.
No. Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge, in Michigan or any other 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.
Michigan has no disclosure statute, but Attorney General consumer guidance recommends posted notice at the store entrance, notice again at the point of sale, and the surcharge itemized as its own line on the receipt. For pricing and program questions beyond state law, see the FAQ page.
Straight Answers on Michigan
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