The Card Fee on Your Dinner Bill: 4% Max on One Card, 3% on Another

Take a $68.00 dinner. Sales tax of $5.44 brings the check to $73.44, and then one more line prints at the bottom: a 4% card fee, $2.94. That line is the least explained charge on a restaurant bill, and its ceiling depends on which card you hand over.

Mastercard publishes a cap of 4%, and limits the fee to the lower of that cap and the restaurant's own average card cost. 1 Visa's published limit is 3%, or the restaurant's actual card cost, whichever is lower. 2 On this $73.44 check, 3% is $2.20. So a 4% line sits at Mastercard's ceiling and $0.74 past Visa's, and the brand on your card decides which of the two applies.

The percentage is computed on the taxed total, so the state's $5.44 gets the fee on top of it. Measured against the food alone, the line is 4.3%, and $0.22 of it is charged on tax the restaurant never receives.

Both networks draw the same line at debit. Visa states that debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged, and that choosing "credit" at the terminal changes nothing, because the card is still a debit card. 2 Mastercard's rules say the fee is not allowed on Debit Mastercard or Mastercard prepaid cards. 1

Several states require the line to be shown before you pay it. New Jersey has required restaurants to disclose a card surcharge, and reveal its amount, since August 2023, and, as of late December 2023, had cited 16 establishments for failing to do so. 3 New York's law, in effect since February 11, 2024, requires either a posted total that includes the surcharge or a two-tiered price showing the card price beside the cash price. 4 California's Civil Code 1748.1 prohibits the surcharge and allows the same economics as a cash discount; a 2018 federal decision stopped the state from enforcing the ban against the businesses that brought the case. 5

The move before you tap: read the percentage on the slip, price it against 3% and 4%, and look at what you are paying with. A debit card carries no surcharge under either network's rules.