We don’t blame Connecticut based business owners for not knowing the credit card surcharging restrictions. In fact, we don’t blame you at all! Instead, we’d like to educate you. It is illegal to surcharge a customer for using a credit card. We have spoken to many business owners lately who have been urged to surcharge by some less-than-knowledgeable payments reps and some less-than-reputable processors. We’re here to set the record straight for Connecticut business owners and answer the question: what are the Connecticut credit card surcharging restrictions?
Are the Connecticut Surcharging Restrictions Different?
Simply put, no. Connecticut follows the same rules on surcharging that the other surcharge-banning states do. Those states in the same boat as Connecticut are Colorado, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Texas .
What are the Surcharging Restrictions in Connecticut?
We’ve taken the following restrictions straight out of Connecticut General Statutes 42-133ff and summarized what each one truly means.
- “No seller may impose a surcharge on a buyer who elects to use any method of payment”
- This restriction states that cash, credit, debit, or any other way of paying a bill cannot contain a fee meant to cover the cost of processing that payment.
- “Nothing… shall prohibit any seller from offering a discount to a buyer to induce such buyer to pay by cash”
- In other words, feel free to increase all of your business’s prices but offer a discount for any method of payment other than credit card.
- “Nothing in this section shall prohibit any seller from conditioning acceptance of a credit card on a buyer’s minimum purchase”
- This means that you may require a minimum amount per purchase if a customer wants to use their card. However, this cannot exceed $10 and adequate signage must be present at the register informing people of your rule.
You won’t need it unless your business is based out of the states listed above, but here are the things to keep in mind if your business starts surcharging.
The Future of Connecticut Surcharging
With California merchants’ recent efforts to eliminate the surcharging ban gaining traction, it seems that surcharging may be on the upswing. Additionally, a ruling to uphold New York’s surcharge ban was voted down by the Supreme Court. It is now in the Second Circuit of the US Court of Appeals. Merchants have shown they are not happy about their credit card processing fees. Moreover, the inability to offset those fees with a surcharge can be frustrating for a business owner. There is a solution though. If you decide to get your merchant services from a credit card processing reseller like PayFrog, you’ll not only get an honest and knowledgeable agent but also lower rates. Take our rate challenge! We’ll show you we can beat the competition!
