Tennessee Credit Card Surcharge Law
Tennessee credit card surcharge law permits surcharging outright. No state statute bans it, caps it, or sets disclosure rules for a private business, so card network rules carry that weight instead. The one Tennessee statute with surcharge language in it governs a county clerk's counter, not a dealership's.
Tennessee Allows Credit Card Surcharging
Tennessee has no surcharge statute on the books, so nothing here bans it, caps it, or tells you how to disclose it. Network rules fill that gap completely.
As of July 2026, no Tennessee statute bans, caps, or sets disclosure rules for a credit card surcharge charged by a private business. That silence hands the job to Visa and Mastercard, and their caps, debit rule, and disclosure requirements are exactly what comes next. Tennessee does have one statute with surcharge language in it, but it is written for a government counter, not a dealership; the statute section below walks through exactly what it covers.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Status | Allowed |
| Cap | Card network caps |
| State statute | None for private merchants |
| Disclosure | Card network rules |
Tennessee 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
Visa and Mastercard write the only cap that applies here, because Tennessee has none of its own.
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Visa: 3% Cap
In force nationwide since April 2023. Tennessee sets no ceiling of its own.
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Mastercard: 4% Cap
Mastercard runs the identical rulebook, its ceiling simply lands a point higher than Visa's.
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Debit Never Surcharges
Debit, prepaid, and gift cards never carry a surcharge here. That is a network-wide restriction with no Tennessee carve-out.
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Disclosure Is Mandatory
Two postings are required, one at the entrance and one at the point of sale, plus a dedicated line on the receipt.
No Federal Cap Exists
Some guides claim credit card surcharges are regulated at the federal level and capped at 4 percent. That is false. No federal law caps credit card surcharges. The real ceilings are Visa's 3 percent and Mastercard's 4 percent, the same two network rules that govern in Tennessee and everywhere else.
What Tennessee Law Actually Says
The section aggregator guides list as Tennessee's surcharge law governs a government counter, not yours.
Walk into a county clerk's office to title or register a vehicle, pay by card, and you may notice a small fee added to the charge. That fee traces back to Tenn. Code 55-2-113, the one Tennessee statute that actually uses the word surcharge, and aggregator sites have run with it as Tennessee's surcharge law ever since. The statute authorizes the state commissioner of revenue, and the county clerks who act as the commissioner's deputies, to accept credit and debit cards for the taxes and fees due on motor vehicle title and registration, and to add a surcharge or convenience fee that covers the cost of processing those payments.
Read it again and the target is plain: it governs the government's own counter, the clerk's window, not a car dealership's payment terminal. Dealers handle title and registration paperwork every day, so the card fee at the clerk's window is a familiar sight, but it is the state charging under its own authorization. The statute says nothing about what a dealership may add at its own counter.
As of July 2026, Tennessee has no merchant surcharge statute at all. Tenn. Code 55-2-113 is the one Tennessee statute with surcharge language in it, and it was written for the commissioner's window, not a private business.
One Statute, One Counter
Tenn. Code 55-2-113 covers the clerk's window, not your service drive. Your posted notice at entry and point of sale, plus the itemized receipt line, are already built into how the program runs, so nobody at your counter needs to interpret a statute that was never written for them.
What This Means at the Counter
The network rulebook is the only rulebook here.
Run a Tennessee service drive and the rules you follow come from Visa and Mastercard, not the state capitol. Keep a credit card surcharge at 3 percent or under to stay inside Visa's cap, post it where customers walk in and again at the payment terminal, and give it its own itemized line on the receipt. A debit card at the register never carries a surcharge. That restriction has no exceptions.
Visa's 3 percent ceiling has applied nationwide since April 2023, and that network rule, not a state number, is what governs your counter today. Run the math at a Tennessee store and you are working off the identical rule as a dealership in any other surcharge friendly state.
CDK Drive carries the surcharge as its own line straight into the repair order, so your service advisors see the exact number they are collecting without leaving the RO screen. Full mechanics live on the surcharge program page; the terminal by terminal breakdown is on the how it works page.
Straight Answers on Tennessee Rules
Yes, surcharging is legal in Tennessee. No state statute addresses private merchant surcharges, so nothing at the state level bans or caps the practice. Visa and Mastercard's own rules fill that space.
Yes. Visa's ceiling is 3 percent and Mastercard's is 4 percent, and because Tennessee has no cap of its own, those network numbers are what actually apply.
No. That statute lets the commissioner of revenue, and the county clerks acting as the commissioner's deputies, add a surcharge or convenience fee on motor vehicle title and registration payments made to the government. It governs a government counter, not a private business, and Tennessee has no merchant surcharge statute.
No. When a customer taps a debit card at the register, no surcharge can attach to it, full stop. That restriction comes from the card networks themselves, and it applies the same way in Tennessee as it does in every other state, prepaid and gift cards included.
No. No federal law caps credit card surcharges. The real ceilings are Visa's 3 percent and Mastercard's 4 percent network rules, the same two numbers that apply in Tennessee and every other state. For pricing and program questions beyond state law, see the FAQ page.
Straight Answers on Tennessee
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