Commercial card surcharges: when a business can and cannot add a card fee

UK payment-surcharge rules make one distinction especially important for merchants: consumer cards and commercial cards are not treated identically. A business should identify the payment method correctly before adding any fee and should not use a vague "card surcharge" that catches payment methods for which surcharging is prohibited.

Consumer debit and credit card surcharges are generally prohibited

Government guidance introduced the UK ban on surcharges for a wide range of consumer payment methods from January 2018. The Payment Systems Regulator also states that merchants are not allowed to charge customers extra for certain payment methods, including cards covered by the relevant interchange-fee rules.

A retailer should therefore not add a blanket percentage simply because a customer chooses an ordinary personal Visa or Mastercard. The processing cost should normally be built into the price or commercial model. A checkout rule that says "2 percent fee on all cards" risks catching prohibited consumer-card transactions.

Commercial debit and credit cards are not covered by the consumer-card ban in the same way

Current Trading Standards guidance states that the prohibition on debit and credit card surcharges does not apply to commercial debit or credit cards. GOV.UK Pay likewise supports configurable corporate-card surcharges in its payment platform, which illustrates the distinction in practice.

That does not mean a merchant should assume every card used by a business customer is commercial. A director can pay a company invoice using a personal consumer card. The legal treatment follows the card type and transaction circumstances rather than the invoice simply being B2B.

Do not surcharge unless the payment system can reliably identify the commercial card

GOV.UK Pay explains that it checks whether a card is one of several corporate-card types before applying a configured surcharge, and it does not apply the charge where it cannot determine the relevant characteristics. Merchants using another acquirer should understand how their system identifies consumer versus commercial cards.

Manual guessing is a poor control. A card bearing a company name is not enough evidence if the payment platform categorises it differently. Ask the acquirer or gateway how the card product type is exposed and what happens when the classification is unknown.

Ask whether a separate commercial-card surcharge is worth the checkout complexity

A surcharge can recover some acceptance cost, but it can also create customer-service disputes, invoice mismatches and payment friction. Compare the annual commercial-card cost with the operational cost of maintaining a separate pricing rule. A small merchant may be better off setting one price that absorbs card costs across all customers.

For example, if corporate cards create £2,000 of additional annual merchant cost but the business invoices £3 million a year, spreading that amount through overall pricing may be simpler than adding and explaining a card fee to a small subset of customers. The right answer is commercial as well as legal.

Where a surcharge is permitted, show it clearly before the customer commits

A payment fee should not appear as a surprise after the customer has entered all payment details. Show the surcharge amount or calculation clearly in the payment journey and on the receipt or invoice where appropriate. Make it possible for the payer to choose another accepted method before completing the transaction.

Keep the fee separate in accounting records. GOV.UK Pay, for example, exposes the original payment amount, total amount and corporate-card surcharge separately. That structure makes refunds and reconciliation easier and prevents the surcharge from disappearing inside sales revenue.

Use acquiring statements to understand which card types actually cost more

The Payment Systems Regulator explains that acquirers should provide merchants with information about costs across card brands and categories, including commercial cards. Review merchant service statements rather than assuming all corporate cards have one cost.

If commercial-card acceptance is materially more expensive, ask the acquirer whether pricing can be improved before passing the cost to customers. The merchant service charge itself is not capped simply because some underlying interchange fees are regulated. Shopping around or renegotiating can sometimes be simpler than introducing a surcharge policy.

Review the mix rather than one average merchant-service percentage. A B2B wholesaler may find that a small number of corporate credit-card payments account for a disproportionate share of acceptance cost, while debit cards and bank transfers are relatively inexpensive. That information can support a better commercial decision: renegotiate acquiring, encourage account-to-account payment, or apply a compliant commercial-card fee only where the economics justify the added complexity.