Surcharge Fee

Every credit card payment comes with a processing fee, which is typically absorbed by your business. The Surcharge Fee Pass-Through feature in Zuper allows you to pass that fee on to the customer instead. Configure your surcharge rate once in Settings, and Zuper automatically applies the surcharge to eligible credit card payments for invoices and quote deposits. At checkout, Zuper calculates the surcharge amount and displays it as a separate line item so customers can see the additional charge before completing their payment. If needed, you can disable the surcharge for an individual invoice or quote without affecting other transactions. Zuper has partnered with Yeeld, a surcharge compliance service, to ensure surcharges are calculated accurately and applied in accordance with card brand rules and state regulations.

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Before You Begin

• Your account is enabled for Zuper Pay.
• You have Admin permissions to access Surcharge Settings.
• You have reviewed the Prohibited States section below. Surcharging is not allowed in every U.S. state. Check with your legal team before enabling this feature.
• Surcharges apply to credit card payments only. Debit and prepaid cards are not eligible.
• The surcharge you configure does not exceed the lower of 3% or your total average cost of credit card acceptance.

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How your surcharge rate is determined

Zuper does not always apply the surcharge rate you configure. For each credit card transaction, Zuper compares the following rates and applies the lower one:

• The surcharge rate you configured for the transaction amount.
• The maximum surcharge rate permitted by Yeeld’s compliance service for the card and billing location.

To determine the permitted rate, Zuper sends the card type, your business’s operating state, and the customer’s billing ZIP code to Yeeld. Yeeld then returns whether a surcharge can be applied and, if so, the maximum surcharge rate allowed for that transaction. As a result, the surcharge applied to a transaction may be lower than your configured rate and may not fully offset your actual credit card processing costs.

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Setting up Surcharge Rules

Start by setting up your surcharge rules in Settings. This is a one-time configuration that tells Zuper how much to charge based on the invoice or quote total. You can define tiered ranges so smaller invoices carry a lower fee than larger ones.

1. Navigate to the Settings module from the left navigation menu.
2. Select Zuper Pay.
3. Select Surcharge Settings.
   
4. Toggle Enable Surcharge Fee to On. This is the organization-wide setting. Once it’s on, surcharging is enabled by default on every invoice and quote deposit. See “Turning off the surcharge for one invoice or quote” below to override this on a single transaction.
5. Read and accept the consent form to activate the feature.
6. In the Select a State field, choose the state of your business operation.

7. Under Define Surcharge Fee Range, set up your tiers:
   1. Enter the Minimum Amount.
   2. Enter the Maximum Amount.
   3. Enter the Surcharge Percentage for that range.
   4. Click + Add New Range to add additional tiers and repeat.
      
8. Click Save.

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Turning off the surcharge for one invoice or quote

Once you turn on the organization-level setting above, the surcharge applies automatically to every invoice and quote deposit. You do not need to turn it on per transaction. If you want to waive the surcharge for a specific transaction, open the invoice or quote, scroll to the bottom of the page, and uncheck Enable Surcharge Fee. This affects only that transaction. Your organization-wide setting stays unchanged, and the surcharge still applies to every other invoice and quote.

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How the surcharge appears on a payment

When a customer pays an invoice or quote by credit card, Zuper calculates the surcharge using the rules described above and adds it to the payment total. For example, suppose you have configured a 3% surcharge for transactions between $1,001 and $2,000, and Yeeld determines that the full 3% can be applied. If a customer pays a $2,000 invoice by credit card, Zuper adds a $60.00 surcharge, displays it as a separate line item, and presents a total payment amount of $2,060.00 for customer approval. If Yeeld determines that the maximum allowable surcharge for the transaction is 2%, Zuper applies a $40.00 surcharge instead of $60.00, even though your configured surcharge tier is 3%.

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Payment Method Considerations

Surcharges apply to credit card payments only. If the customer pays with a debit or prepaid card, the surcharge is automatically removed, and the customer is charged the original invoice amount only. Zuper supports surcharge collection for both card-present and card-not-present credit card transactions.

• Card Present
• Card Not Present

While the customer sees the surcharge added to their payment total, Zuper Pay calculates its own processing fee separately based on the payment method used and applies it to the full amount collected, including the surcharge. In the example above, the customer pays $2,060.00, and Zuper Pay calculates its processing fee on that full $2,060.00 before settling the remaining funds to your account.

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Automatic Payments

Once you configure a surcharge in Settings, Zuper automatically applies it to eligible automatic credit card payments. You don’t need to configure the surcharge separately for each transaction. If a customer chooses not to continue with automatic payments, you can remove their saved card from the auto-charge setup. Zuper does not automatically remove saved cards based on customer responses.

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Processing Refunds

When you refund a transaction that included a surcharge, the surcharge is refunded in proportion to the refund amount.

• Full refund: The customer receives the full amount back, including the surcharge.
• Partial refund: The surcharge is partially refunded in proportion to the amount refunded.

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Prohibited States

Surcharging is governed at the federal, card network, and U.S. state levels. Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, and Discover impose their own requirements, including a cap of the lower of 3% or the merchant’s cost of acceptance. At the state level, some states prohibit or restrict surcharging entirely, while most allow it with conditions such as caps and disclosure requirements. Rules vary and may change. Zuper automatically detects the service address ZIP code and disables the surcharge for restricted locations.

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Frequently asked questions