Pennsylvania Credit Card Surcharge Law
Pennsylvania credit card surcharge law allows surcharging statewide, and no state statute caps it today. Card network rules set the ceiling, disclosure at the door and the counter keeps you inside them, and a bill in Harrisburg is moving toward a cap of its own, but it is not law yet.
Pennsylvania Allows Credit Card Surcharging
No state statute restricts or caps it. Card network rules govern.
Pennsylvania has no enacted law restricting or capping credit card surcharges. There is no state statute to read, no state cap to hit, and no state disclosure form to file. That leaves the card networks to set the terms, the same way they do in every state without its own surcharge statute: Visa and Mastercard cap the surcharge at your actual cost of acceptance, and both require clear disclosure before the customer pays.
A bill is moving through the state House that would change this. It has not passed, and as of July 2026 Pennsylvania surcharging still runs on network rules alone. See the full breakdown below.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| Cap | Card network caps |
| State statute | None enacted. HB 1780 pending in the House |
| Disclosure | Card network rules: post it at the door and the counter, itemize it on the receipt |
Pennsylvania 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
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 Pennsylvania 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.
The Bill Moving Through Harrisburg
Here is exactly where it stands, and exactly what it is not yet.
House Bill 1780, the Transparent Payment Fees Act, would amend Title 12 of Pennsylvania's Commerce and Trade code to put a state statute behind credit card surcharging for the first time. It was introduced in the 2025-2026 session and referred to the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee on August 4, 2025.
The committee moved on it. On June 9, 2026, HB 1780 passed out of committee 26 to 0, received first consideration in the full House, and was re-committed to the Rules Committee the same day. That is real movement. It is also as far as the bill has gotten.
Plainly: HB 1780 has not passed the House, has not reached the Senate, and is not law in Pennsylvania as of July 2026. Nothing about how you run a surcharge program in this state changes because of it, not yet.
If it is signed as written, HB 1780 would cap credit card surcharges at the merchant's actual cost to process the payment, require disclosure before the transaction is completed, hand enforcement to the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection, and take effect 120 days after signing.
Not Law Today
HB 1780 cleared committee 26 to 0 on June 9, 2026, and sits with the House Rules Committee. It has not passed the House, has not reached the Senate, and carries no legal weight in Pennsylvania right now. Surcharging in this state still runs on card network rules alone until that changes.
Read the cap the bill proposes and it lines up with the rule the card networks already enforce. Visa already holds every surcharge to actual cost or 3 percent, whichever is lower, and disclosure at the door and the counter is already a network requirement, not a new idea. A dealership running a compliant, disclosed program today is already doing what HB 1780 would ask. We track the bill and the state, not your front desk.
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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania Rules
Yes. Pennsylvania has no state statute restricting or capping credit card surcharges, so card network rules govern. Visa and Mastercard both cap the surcharge at your actual cost of acceptance and require clear disclosure.
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.
The Transparent Payment Fees Act, a bill that would cap surcharges at actual processing cost and require disclosure before checkout. It cleared its House committee 26 to 0 on June 9, 2026 and now sits with the Rules Committee. It has not passed the House, has not reached the Senate, and is not law today.
No. Debit, prepaid, and gift cards can never carry a surcharge, in Pennsylvania 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.
There is no state disclosure mandate today. Card network rules fill the gap: 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.
Straight Answers on Pennsylvania
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