A surcharge is an additional fee you can add to a transaction when your customer uses their card to complete a sale. You might use this fee to cover your costs related to card payments.

If you want to implement surcharging to pass those costs to your customers, please contact your account manager or merchant support.

Once you commit to including surcharge fees, you must adhere to strict card brand, country, and state laws. Additionally, you are required to make a request to the Surcharge API for every transaction and receive a token. Even if the transaction is not eligible for surcharge, that token will be required in auth and/or capture requests.

Requirements

BlueSnap only supports surcharging of card payments for merchants located in Australia, Canada, or the United States, and who are using the Payment API (not the BlueSnap Hosted Payment Page).

Implementation Rules

The information provided here is for guidance and not legal advice. Surcharging rules and regulations are subject to change. Please consult on your setup to ensure your compliance.

Payment Methods

Bank Cards

Card brand rules and country laws dictate whether surcharges on credit cards are allowed.

Territory Requirements for Surcharging

Surcharge eligibility is based on the merchant's location. Your legal entity must be in Australia, Canada, or the United States to have surcharge. If your local jurisdiction allows surcharging, then you can apply a surcharge to any shopper regardless of their location.

Merchant Location Prohibitions in the US

Certain US states and territories prohibit surcharging.

States and territories that prohibit surcharging:

• CT Connecticut

• ME Maine

• MA Massachusetts

• NY New York

• PR Puerto Rico

States that allow surcharging

Merchant Location Prohibitions in Canada

Quebec prohibits applying a surcharge fee for transactions made by merchants based in Quebec.

Surcharge Rate Value

You can surcharge your customers a rate up to a maximum of 3.0% in the US or 2.4% in Canada, depending on your local jurisdiction. Contact Merchant Support to have your desired rate set up by BlueSnap.

The surcharge rate must be the same for all transactions, regardless of the issuer or the card brand. The card brands require all cards to be treated equally, with no competitive advantages.

Surcharge Rate Caps by Country

Surcharge Enablement

Contact BlueSnap support by emailing Merchant Support or your implementation engineer directly if you want to enable surcharging.

Disclosures

Card network rules and local regulations require that the surcharge be disclosed before payment is completed. This means that once you have calculated the surcharge amount, you need to display it as a separate line item and update the total payment amount on the checkout page before the shopper submits payment.

You must also provide clear disclosure signage informing your customer which payment methods are subject to a surcharge fee and the surcharge percentage/cost, such as the following examples

“We impose a surcharge on credit cards that is not greater than our cost of acceptance.”

and:

“We impose a surcharge of __% on the total transaction amount for CARD NETWORK credit card products, which is not greater than our cost of acceptance. We do not surcharge CARD NETWORK debit cards.”

Card Brands Registration

You must notify BlueSnap and the card brands (depending on their below requirements) of your intent to surcharge in advance. Our Implementation Team can assist you with the card brands' surcharge registration process.

• Mastercard requires that the merchant must submit the MC Merchant Surcharge Form, and notify both Mastercard and BlueSnap at least 30 days prior to adding surcharge.
• VISA and Discover require that the merchant notifies BlueSnap at least 30 days prior to adding surcharge.
• American Express does not require merchants to provide notice as long as they comply with all other rules.

Please contact support by emailing Merchant Support.

Payment Receipt

Receipts must be provided for payments with surcharge fees, so ensure you have enabled the Receipts email notification. The surcharge will be displayed as a separate line item on the shopper's payment receipt.

Surcharge Calculation

The appropriate surcharge fee is calculated based on the configured surcharge rate in the payment's currency.

To determine the surcharge amount, call the Surcharge API to calculate the appropriate amount. The API will return a surcharge token that you will need to include in your Payment API request. Refer to the Surcharge API guide for more details.

Partial Captures

If a transaction is authorized for the full amount but later captured in part, then the surcharge fee will be prorated across the captured and remaining amounts. It is recommended to call the Prorate Surcharge API with the invoice's partial amount you intend to capture, so the appropriate surcharge amount can be calculated. If you don't call the Prorate API, BlueSnap will split the amount between the invoice and the surcharge.

See the Surcharge API guide for more information about this process.

Taxes

Surcharge will be included when calculating the tax with Avalara via the Tax Quote API. Refer to the Surcharges API documentation for more details about this process.

Refunds

Full and partial refunds always include the surcharge.

• Full Refund: Returns the full payment amount plus the full surcharge fee amount to the cardholder.
• Partial Refund: Returns a proportional percentage of the surcharge fee. It is recommended to call the Prorate Surcharge API so the system will calculate the surcharge portion and returns the correct total refund. If you don't call the Prorate API, BlueSnap will split the total refund amount between the invoice and surcharge.

Surcharges in the Merchant Portal

If a surcharge was applied, the Order Locator page will also display the surcharge amount and the original payment amount (excluding the surcharge fee) with the order total information.

Surcharges in BlueSnap Reports

The surcharge amount is passed to the following BlueSnap reports, which display columns reflecting the fee collected for each transaction:

• Transaction Summary
• Recent Transactions
• Transaction Details
• Monthly Summary
• Payout Summary
• Payout Details