Montana Credit Card Surcharge Law
Montana credit card surcharge law allows surcharging. There is no state statute that bans, caps, or sets disclosure rules for it, though a specific 3 percent figure keeps getting repeated as if there were one. This page shows what actually governs, where that number really comes from, and what a Montana dealership needs to get right at the counter.
Montana Allows Credit Card Surcharging
No statute bans it, caps it, or sets disclosure rules for it, not for a private business like a dealership.
Search "Montana credit card surcharge law" and one figure keeps surfacing: 3 percent, framed as a hard state limit. No such limit exists. As of July 2026, nothing on Montana's books bans, caps, or sets disclosure rules for a private business surcharging a credit card, and nothing ever has for a dealership's front counter. The real ceiling comes from the card networks themselves, walked through next, while the true (and unrelated) origin of that 3 percent number gets its own full section further down the page.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| State cap | None, network rules apply |
| Disclosure | Card network rules |
| Debit | Never surcharged |
Credit card surcharging is legal in 47 states; Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts ban it. See the full table at credit card surcharge laws by state.
The Card Networks Set the Ceiling
Montana never filled that gap with a statute of its own, so the ceiling at your counter comes from Visa and Mastercard, not Helena.
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Visa: 3% Cap
In force nationwide since April 2023. Montana 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 Montana 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 on the Books
Montana has never passed a law capping what a private business may add for accepting a credit card. A 3 percent figure keeps getting repeated as if it were that law. It isn't, and the section below shows exactly where it actually comes from.
The Cap That Isn't Law
A real number, from two real places, neither of which is a law that applies to your dealership.
Processing industry guides, and even Montana local news coverage, have published a simple claim: Montana caps credit card surcharges at 3 percent. It reads like settled state law. It is not. As of July 2026, no Montana statute caps, limits, or sets a ceiling on what a private business may add to a transaction for accepting a credit card. The 3 percent figure is real, it just comes from two places that have nothing to do with a dealership's front counter.
The first place is Montana Code Annotated 7-6-617. That statute lets a local government entity, a county treasurer's office or a city utility department, for example, accept credit cards for payments owed to that office and charge the payer a convenience fee of up to 3 percent of the payment. It is a real 3 percent figure, written into a real Montana statute. It applies only to a payment made to a local government office. It has never applied to a private business, and it does not apply to a dealership.
The second place is Senate Bill 528 from the 2025 legislative session, titled to revise laws related to credit card transaction fees. If it had passed, it would have expressly allowed a business to add a credit card fee of up to 3 percent, disclosed to the customer before the transaction was completed. It came close: the Senate passed it 26 to 23 on March 6, 2025, and the House passed an amended version 88 to 11 on April 11, 2025. The Senate declined to accept the House's changes, a conference committee could not reconcile the two versions, and the bill died on May 23, 2025 when the session ended. Senate Bill 528 is not law today. It never took effect.
Montana's legislature meets in regular session only in odd numbered years, so the next regular session does not convene until January 2027. As of July 2026, no surcharge bill is pending in Montana. Until a bill like Senate Bill 528 actually passes and is signed, the only real ceiling on a Montana dealership's credit card surcharge is the one set by Visa and Mastercard, covered above.
What Actually Applies
No Montana statute caps what a private business can surcharge. Montana Code Annotated 7-6-617's 3 percent convenience fee is a local government rule, not a state cap on businesses. Senate Bill 528 would have created one; it died in 2025 and is not law. Visa's 3 percent and Mastercard's 4 percent are the real ceilings for a Montana dealership.
What This Means at the Counter
The counter just needs the disclosure and the receipt line handled.
Your surcharge program stays compliant without your front desk having to track Montana law itself. Disclosure runs the way the card networks require it: notice at the point of entry, notice at the point of sale, and the surcharge itemized as its own line on the receipt. The program is credit-only, so the debit prohibition that applies everywhere is never something your advisors have to think about at the terminal. We track the state, not your front desk.
None of that tracking happens off to the side either: every surcharge posts directly to the repair order inside CDK Drive, right where your advisors are already looking. Walk through exactly what that looks like at the terminal on the how it works page, or see the complete program mechanics on the surcharge program page.
Straight Answers on Montana Rules
Yes. As of July 2026, no Montana statute bans or caps a private business surcharging a credit card. The 3 percent figure often repeated online is not state law; it comes from a local convenience fee statute and a bill that never passed, both covered below.
No. That 3 percent figure is not a state cap on private businesses. It comes from Montana Code Annotated 7-6-617, a convenience fee ceiling that applies only to local government payments, and from a 2025 bill, Senate Bill 528, that would have created a business cap but died before it became law.
Senate Bill 528 would have expressly allowed a business to add a credit card fee of up to 3 percent, disclosed before the transaction was completed. The Senate and House passed different versions, a conference committee could not reconcile them, and the bill died when the 2025 session ended. It never took effect.
The card network rules set the standard: post notice at the point of entry, post notice at the point of sale, and show the surcharge as its own line on the receipt. Montana has no separate state disclosure statute for private merchants.
Never. Montana has no separate rule to check here either: debit, prepaid, and gift cards simply cannot be surcharged, a card network rule that follows the card regardless of state or terminal. For pricing and program questions beyond state law, see the FAQ page.
Straight Answers on Montana
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