Ohio Credit Card Surcharge Law
Ohio credit card surcharge law allows surcharging with no state statute and no state cap on the books. Card network rules set the ceiling instead, and a disclosure bill is sitting in the legislature that would change the paperwork, not the legality.
Ohio Allows Credit Card Surcharging
No statute bans it. No statute caps it. That is the whole state-law story.
Ohio has never passed a law banning or capping credit card surcharges for private businesses. Two sections of the Ohio Revised Code do mention surcharge notices, R.C. 113.40 and R.C. 503.55, but both apply only to state and local government offices collecting payments. A repair order at a franchise dealership is not a government transaction, and neither section reaches your service drive or your front desk. With no state statute in play, the card networks set the rules, the same as they do everywhere else surcharging is legal.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| Cap | Card network caps |
| State statute | None for private merchants (SB 337 pending) |
| Disclosure | Card network rules today |
Ohio 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 Ohio or anywhere else.
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Disclosure Is Mandatory
Notify your acquirer, 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.
The Bill That Isn't Law Yet
A lot of guides online treat this as settled. It isn't.
Senate Bill 337, introduced in the Ohio General Assembly in December 2025, would add a new section to the Revised Code, R.C. 1345.29, requiring dealerships and other merchants to clearly disclose a credit card surcharge in writing at the point of sale. Violations would be enforced as an unfair or deceptive practice under Ohio's Consumer Sales Practices Act, which means the attorney general could bring an enforcement action and customers could pursue their own remedies. The bill was referred to a Senate committee on February 11, 2026, and as of this review it has not passed either chamber. It is not Ohio law today.
Here's the correction worth making plainly: search around and you will find guides citing R.C. 1345.29 as if it were already on the books, current Ohio disclosure law. Check the official Ohio Revised Code and that section does not exist. What's actually governing your dealership's disclosure duties right now comes from the card networks, Visa and Mastercard's own rules, not from any Ohio statute. If Senate Bill 337 passes, that changes. Until it does, the network rules are the whole story.
Already Built for Either Outcome
If Senate Bill 337 becomes law, written disclosure at the counter turns from a card network best practice into a state requirement. The program already posts notice at the point of entry, posts it again at the point of sale, and itemizes the surcharge as its own line on the receipt, so that requirement is already how a dealership on the program runs today.
What This Means at the Counter
One playbook, no state add-ons.
Ohio hands your counter the simple version: no state statute layered on top, so the card network playbook is the whole checklist. A standard 3% credit card surcharge sits inside Visa's cap, with notice posted at the point of entry, posted again at the point of sale, and the surcharge itemized as its own line on the receipt. Debit never carries a surcharge, in Ohio 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 Ohio Rules
Yes. Ohio has no state statute banning or capping credit card surcharges for private merchants. With nothing at the state level, the card networks' own rules govern instead.
Yes. With no state cap on the books, 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.
Not for private merchants, not yet. R.C. 113.40 and R.C. 503.55 cover disclosure for state and local government offices only, not dealerships. Today's disclosure duty comes from the card networks. Senate Bill 337 would add a state disclosure requirement if it passes, but it hasn't.
No. Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge, in Ohio 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.
A pending bill that would enact R.C. 1345.29, requiring written point of sale disclosure of credit card surcharges, enforceable under Ohio's Consumer Sales Practices Act. It is in Senate committee and has not become law. For pricing and program questions beyond state law, see the FAQ page.
Straight Answers on Ohio
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