What is a surcharge?
A surcharge is an additional fee that you can add to your customer’s payments when they choose to pay an invoice with a credit card. This allows you to offset the processing fees charged by credit card companies (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, etc.), helping you recover costs and maintain profitability.
More specifically, it’s a legally regulated fee that’s applied only to credit card payments. It’s not the same as a general service or convenience fee.
Purpose - Exclusively to cover the cost businesses incur for accepting credit card payments
Application - Only applies to credit card transactions; debit card, ACH, or cash payments cannot have surcharges.
Regulation - The maximum amount you can charge for a surcharge is regulated by state law and credit card network rules. Surcharges can never exceed the actual cost of processing the transaction.
Why do surcharges matter?
A properly implemented surcharge program helps you recover the processing fees associated with credit card payments, typically ranging from 2 to 4% of the payment’s total. By passing this cost to your customers, you can protect your profit margins without raising prices for all.
How do I set them up?
You don’t need to worry about that! Hauler Hero automates the surcharge process so you always stay compliant with state and network rules.
When a customer pays by credit card, we’ll recognize their location based on their billing address’ state. Hauler Hero will then apply the appropriate surcharge rate and add it to your customer’s total at the time of payment.
How do I disclose surcharges to my customers?
If you use HH Payments, you’ll also have the option of disclosing surcharges to your customers in the portal, users in the CRM, and invoices. If you’d like to set this up, reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
Feedback? Questions?
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