How do surcharges work

These are:. In each case, these costs must be specific to the particular types of cards that you are surcharging, rather than being costs that apply to all payment methods accepted by you. Furthermore, these must be costs paid by you to an external provider and verified by contracts, statement or invoices. For most businesses, calculating your permitted surcharge is quite simple. All of the standard card acceptance services which are supplied to you by your bank or payment facilitator are set out in the monthly statements you receive from them.

The statements outline your cost of acceptance for each applicable payment type expressed as a percentage of the value of a transaction. If you obtain any of the following services from a separate payment service provider a provider other than your bank or payment facilitator :.

No other payment service provider costs can be included in a payment surcharge. You will need to calculate the proportion of these costs applying to particular systems, allocating costs based on total transaction values for each system over the previous year. The RBA guidance material contains some additional information to assist you with this.

Remember, the only non-acquirer, non-payment facilitator fees that is, fees which do not appear on your monthly statement allowed to be included in your cost of acceptance calculation are these four elements, and they must be documented or recorded in a contract or invoice provided by the payment service provider.

They must also be costs that apply to cards but not to other payment methods. You may need to provide these documents to us if we issue you with a surcharge information notice to examine the level of your surcharges.

The ban does not prevent a business from charging fees that are genuinely unrelated to payment methods. However your business will still need to comply with its existing obligations under the Australian Consumer Law. That is, you will need to include all components that make up the price of your goods or services in the advertised price, where they can be quantified.

You will also need to ensure you do not mislead consumers and you need to provide adequate disclosure and be clear about the nature of the fee and the circumstances in which it applies. To be clear though, if you impose a fee, however you describe it, that is payable on some payment methods but not others, then it is likely to be a payment surcharge.

The ban will apply and the amount that you surcharge will be limited to your costs for accepting that payment method. Different payment methods will typically have different costs of acceptance. This will be set out in your monthly statements — a customised percentage will be provided for each relevant payment type for example an individual percentage for MasterCard credit, another for American Express credit, another for Visa Debit etc.

Pay your surcharges Driver license restoration fee payment. A temporary billing hold can be placed on your surcharge account. You will need to mail or fax a copy of your overseas deployment documentation and driver license number to the Surcharge Administration Office, P. Your billing hold will be automatically released when your deployment ends. You must notify the Surcharge Administration Office at , extension if your deployment ends early or if you have any questions.

A hold may be placed on your account if your doctor certifies that your medical condition permanently prevents you from driving. You will also need to surrender your driver license; you may replace the license with a Non-Driver ID. Contact the Surcharge Administration Office at , extension for more information. Billing and responsibility for payment continues during the period of incarceration. You may also write to the Surcharge Administration Office, P.

Box , Trenton, NJ, or fax the office at You may also use this number to access an automated system to an individual account for payment and surcharge program information.

You also have the ability to make credit card and check payments 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Surcharges are assessed pursuant to New Jersey law for the accumulation of excessive points or where drivers are convicted of certain specified offenses. Download the surcharge brochure. For more information on surcharges, call How can I pay my surcharge? Box Moorestown, NJ Surcharge payment plans are available as detailed on your bill. Why am I being surcharged? What are the penalties if I do not pay the surcharge?

My driver license is currently suspended. What are my options? Do I have to pay surcharges if I move outside of New Jersey? Why am I still being surcharged for points after three years? Does the annual safe driving credit or a defensive driving class stop surcharges? Since I'm not licensed in New Jersey, why am I being surcharged? Should I pay my surcharge balance in full or make installment payments payment plan? Why was my tax refund applied to my surcharge balance?

I have a judgment due to non-payment of my surcharge. How do I satisfy the judgment? How do credit card surcharges benefit your business? Are credit surcharge programs legal? What Is a Surcharge Program? Or, they can pay with cash or debit and avoid the fee altogether.

Surcharge Programs vs. Cash Discount Programs If some of this is sounding familiar, you may be thinking of cash discounting. But here are three clear-cut ways surcharge programs could benefit your business: They Offer a Fast, Effortless Revenue Boost Surcharging allows merchants to take back the revenue lost to credit card processing costs.

They Strengthen Businesses With Low Average Transaction Values In industries that rely on low-price, high-volume purchases or small average order values AOVs — like restaurants and bars , convenience stores, and certain retailers — it can be challenging to make a profit on credit card transactions.

Credit Card Surcharge Program Rules The subject of surcharging can seem complicated, but handling it properly comes down to a few important rules. You must register with the major card brands. And by the way, Nadapayments will handle this registration and setup for you.

You must make your customers aware of any surcharge fees. Merchants are required to use clear signage at their point of sale POS as well as their store entrance or online checkout page. The airline decides to pass on this cost to Jenny as a payment surcharge on Visa credit card transactions. If the airline charges Jenny a payment surcharge which is not higher than 1 per cent of the value of her transaction it is not in breach of the ban. While these payment surcharges are not subject to the ban, and therefore the ACCC cannot take action if they are excessive, these payment systems may have rules or terms and conditions that seek to limit the surcharges merchants can impose.

If you have concerns about a surcharge for paying using one of these systems you should contact that system directly. The ban does not apply to any payments made for taxi services. Taxi services were excluded from the RBA standard because the industry is already regulated by state and territory regulators. The ban does not affect the existing requirements for businesses to comply with the Australian Consumer Law provisions relating to false or misleading representations about price, and component pricing.

These require businesses to state the total price when presenting prices to consumers and to not make false or misleading claims about their prices. The RBA standard allows businesses to charge their customers a cost-based surcharge on card payments, but any surcharge will be limited to the amount it costs the business to accept that type of card for that transaction. Businesses incur costs when they accept a payment from a customer using a credit card, a debit card or a prepaid card. The level of those costs can vary according to the size of the business and which payment method is used.

The RBA has said that as a guide, payments through the domestic eftpos system used to process payments from debit cards are usually quite low, mostly below 0.