Credit card surcharges seem to be everywhere in NC. Who’s paying for them?
If you’ve ever used a credit card to pay for a meal or a shopping trip, you’ve probably seen a surcharge added to your bill.
These surcharges seem to be everywhere, but North Carolina doesn’t have laws about how much businesses can charge or what the consequences are when they break the rules — yet.
The News & Observer spoke with a Durham restaurant owner, a state hospitality industry group, a lawmaker and a representative of the state bankers association to learn more about surcharges in North Carolina.
Full story: Some NC businesses charge for using credit cards. Is there a limit to the fees?
Here are key takeaways:
- Fees aren’t just affecting North Carolinians. The Nilson Report found that in 2025, charges for credit cards totaled nearly $158 billion, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition. Nearly $119 billion were swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard, which control more than 80% of the market and set rates for banks issuing their cards.
- North Carolina does not currently limit credit card surcharges or require clear notice of surcharges to customers. But proposed legislation would cap fees at 2% of the transaction and mandate disclosure of the fees.
- Tom Cuomo, co-owner of Dino’s Pizza in Durham, said “credit card fees have gotten quite exorbitant.” For that reason, the restaurant started charging customers who pay with credit cards an extra 3% in late fall. The cost of business has increased across the board, but credit card processing fees in particular have climbed from 5.5% last summer to about 8% now.
- Allen Thomas, CEO of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, said three factors are intensifying how credit card fees are hitting businesses: There’s more credit card use, only a few companies control fees, and food and labor costs are rising.
- Nathan Batts of the North Carolina Bankers Association said interchange fees, which merchants that accept credit cards have to pay, support the infrastructure that keeps electronic payments safe and efficient. In response, merchants can absorb the costs, offer a discount to customers for paying with cash, or pass the cost on as a surcharge.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by Renee Umsted and Dave Hendrickson, who reported, wrote and edited the full story in the link at the top.
This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 2:51 PM.
