Answers to common questions
No. Many merchants have been offering lowering prices to their customers willing to pay cash for years. The customer is given the choice between paying cash for a lower price, paying with a debit card to avoid the charge, or accepting the surcharge and paying by credit card.
Cash Discount Programs are legal in all 50 states per the Durbin Amendment (part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Law), which states that businesses are permitted to offer a discount to customers in the form of an incentive for paying with cash.
A Cash Discount Program works by providing your customers with a cash and credit price when processing their purchase. If the customer pays by cash, they receive a lower price than if they pay by credit. The slightly higher price of paying by credit card is called a surcharge and it includes your cost of processing
The ability to surcharge only applies to credit card purchases, and only under certain conditions. U.S. merchants cannot surcharge debit card or prepaid card purchases.
It can apply to Debit cards as long as it’s not PIN debit
Yes. You cannot surcharge your client more than your applicable merchant discount rate for the applicable credit card. When you partner with Swivl Payments, the fee is automatically added to each transaction.
Yes. You will start to see the savings immediately and your monthly statement will only contain the debit card processing fees.
Yes. U.S. merchants that enroll in the program must disclose the dollar amount on every receipt, in addition to signage on the point of entry and point of sale.
Your customers have the option of different methods of payment if they do not accept the surcharge on their credit card. You are simply providing your customer more flexibility in their payment options, which should not result in any decline of sales or customer satisfaction.