Passing card costs to the customer

Card processing costs money. Most businesses absorb it; some pass it on. Aced supports both compliant ways of passing it on, in Settings → Payments → Card processing costs. Both ship off — nothing changes until you choose.

Option 1: credit-card surcharge

A percentage (up to 3%) added to purchases paid with a credit card — and only a credit card. Card-network rules say debit and prepaid cards must never be surcharged, and Aced enforces that automatically:

• On a reader tap or dip, the card's own funding type decides — a credit card pays the fee, a debit card doesn't, with no cashier judgment involved.
• On keyed entry, the card number is checked with the processor before charging.
• Tabs held on a card, QR payments, and online payments are never surcharged — funding can't be verified compliantly there, so Aced doesn't try.

The customer sees the disclosure before paying ("Credit cards add a 3% surcharge — debit cards don't"), and the fee prints as its own Card surcharge line on every receipt. Refunds return the fee proportionally.

Where it's allowed: surcharging is banned in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico, and capped at 2% in Colorado. Confirm your state's rules before turning it on — the settings screen repeats this warning.

Option 2: cash discount (dual pricing)

The reverse framing, legal everywhere: your posted prices are the card price, and paying cash rings the sale lower (up to 5% off). Sales tax is recomputed on the lower cash price, the receipt shows its own "Cash discount" line, and the register shows the exact cash price before you collect.

Which one?

• Cash-heavy business, or in a state that bans surcharges → cash discount.
• Mostly card business that wants cards to carry their own cost → surcharge.

Either way it's one radio button and a rate — no math for staff, no rules to remember at the counter, and reports keep the fee income on its own line so your books stay clean.