Credit card fees are
eating your margins.
They don't have to.

Compliant fee recovery for US ecommerce.

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☁ Cloud-based · 🔒 PCI Level 1 · ✔ All eligible US states

Built for Ecommerce

Keep more of every sale.

Online merchants using moat recover an average of 2.5–3.5% on every credit card transaction — legally, transparently, and without a single line of custom code.

  • Integrate and connect in under 15 minutes
  • Automatic surcharge display at checkout — no template edits needed
  • State-specific rules enforced in real time on every transaction
  • Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover all handled correctly
  • Full audit trail for compliance and dispute resolution
  • Full audit trail for compliance and dispute resolution
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Fees Recovered
$4,218
↑ 12% this month
Transactions
1,847
↑ 8% vs last month
Compliance
100%
All states valid
Card mix this month
Visa Credit53%
Mastercard Credit25%
American Express14%
Discover8%

How It Works

From checkout to settlement —
every compliance step, automated

moat runs five distinct checks on every transaction. Here's exactly what happens under the hood.

1

Card Number Validation

As the customer types, moat captures the first 6–8 digits (the BIN) and runs them through the Luhn algorithm to confirm the card number is structurally valid — before any network call is made.

2

Real-Time BIN Lookup

The BIN is queried against a live database to classify the card: credit, debit, prepaid, or corporate. Debit and prepaid cards are silently excluded from surcharging — automatically, with no merchant configuration needed.

3

State Eligibility Check

The customer's billing state is cross-referenced against a continuously maintained database of surcharge laws by state. In prohibited states, the fee is removed entirely — the customer never sees it.

4

Transparent Checkout Display

The surcharge is surfaced as a line item on the checkout page and itemized on the receipt — meeting card network disclosure requirements and protecting you from disputes.

5

Settlement & Reporting

The transaction settles through your existing processor with correct line-item data. moat fees are tracked separately in your dashboard so you can see exactly how much you're saving — every day.

Step 1 — Card Validation
Validating card in real time
4111 11•• •••• 1111
Valid
Luhn checksum passed · 6-digit BIN extracted
BIN captured 411111
Issuer lookup Querying database…
Step 2 — BIN Lookup
Card classified
BIN411111
NetworkVisa
DebitNo ✓
CreditYes ✓
Proceeding to state check
Step 3 — State Eligibility
Checking billing state
Allowed (41) Restricted (7) Banned (3)
South Carolina (SC) | Surcharging allowed
Order Summary — Demo Store
Item 1$49.00
Item 2$38.00
Credit card fee (3%) + $2.61
Total $89.61
A processing fee is applied to credit card payments in accordance with card network rules. No fee is applied to debit cards or in states where this practice is prohibited.
Step 5 — Settlement
Transaction settled
Order total$89.61
Processing fee− $2.61
moat collected$2.61
Net cost to merchant $0.00
Reported separately in your moat dashboard

Coverage

Fee recovery eligibility,
state by state

moat checks every customer's billing state in real time and applies the correct rules automatically. Hover any state to see its status.

Allowed (41 states)
Restricted — special rules apply (7)
Banned — CA, CT, MA, ME (4)
moat checks billing state in real time — no manual configuration needed. See how it works →

Founding team from the world's leading payments companies

Adyen Braintree PayPal Worldpay

FAQs

Questions, answered.

Everything you need to know about surcharging compliance, setup, and how moat works under the hood.

Yes — with conditions. Surcharging credit cards is legal in most U.S. states, provided you follow card network rules: the fee must be disclosed before checkout, capped at 4%, applied only to credit cards (not debit or prepaid), and itemized on receipts. moat enforces all of these automatically. A small number of states prohibit surcharging entirely — moat blocks the fee in those states based on the customer's billing address.
As of 2024, surcharging is restricted or prohibited in a small number of states including Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California. State laws change — moat maintains a continuously updated rules database and enforces eligibility automatically based on the customer's billing address, not your business location. You never have to manually track state law changes.
Eligibility is determined by the customer's billing address state, not your business location. If a customer in a prohibited state checks out on your store, moat silently removes the fee before they ever see it — even if your store is based in a fully eligible state. This is done via billing address cross-reference, not IP detection, which is more reliable and legally sound.
Visa and Mastercard both require that the surcharge amount be clearly disclosed before the customer completes their purchase, and broken out as a line item on the receipt. moat handles both automatically — the fee appears on the checkout page before payment, and is itemized on all order confirmations and email receipts. No manual disclosure setup needed.
Card network rules cap surcharges at 4% of the transaction value — or your actual cost of acceptance, whichever is lower. moat enforces this ceiling automatically and won't allow you to set a rate above 4%. You can set a fixed amount or a percentage below 4% depending on your pricing strategy.
Visa and Mastercard network rules explicitly prohibit surcharging on debit cards, including prepaid cards. This is a hard rule — not a suggestion. moat uses real-time BIN lookup to identify whether a card is credit, debit, or prepaid at the moment of entry. Debit and prepaid cards are automatically excluded before the surcharge is ever displayed to the customer.
Yes. American Express updated its rules in 2013 to permit surcharging where otherwise allowed by state law. moat identifies Amex cards via BIN lookup and applies the same state eligibility check before displaying a fee. If the customer's billing state allows surcharging, Amex cards are treated the same as Visa or Mastercard credit cards.
The Bank Identification Number (BIN) is the first 6–8 digits of a card number. As a customer types their card at checkout, moat captures the BIN in real time and queries it against a live database to determine the issuing bank, card network, and card type (credit, debit, prepaid, corporate). This happens before the customer finishes entering their card — so the correct fee (or no fee) is displayed without any page reload or delay.
Corporate credit cards are eligible for surcharging under standard rules. However, if you process a significant volume of B2B transactions with corporate cards, you may also benefit from moat's Level 3 Processing feature — which automatically submits enhanced transaction data to qualify corporate card payments for lower interchange rates, reducing your cost of acceptance even further.
Yes. moat includes full-stack payment processing — you don't need a separate processor account. Authorization, settlement, and reporting are all handled within the platform. You connect your account and you're processing and surcharging from day one.
For most ecommerce stores, setup takes under 15 minutes. Connect via API, configure your surcharge rate (fixed or percentage, up to 4%), and you're live. No custom development, no gateway migration, no compliance configuration — moat handles all of that automatically.
Yes. moat integrates at the checkout and payment layer, compatible with major ecommerce platforms. The surcharge line item is injected into your order summary and receipt templates automatically.
moat applies at the order level rather than per product. You configure a single rate (or fixed amount) that applies to all eligible credit card transactions on your store. The rate can be updated at any time from your moat dashboard — changes take effect immediately with no code changes needed.
When a full refund is issued on a surcharged transaction, the surcharge amount is also refunded to the customer. For partial refunds, the surcharge is prorated proportionally. moat handles this automatically within your platform's standard refund flow — no manual calculation or separate refund step required. The refund breakdown is recorded in your dashboard for reporting purposes.
moat fees are tracked separately from product revenue in your moat dashboard. You can see daily, weekly, and monthly totals for surcharge collected, broken down by card type, transaction volume, and state. All data is exportable for accounting and reconciliation. Your order records also include the surcharge as a separate line item for each transaction.
Because moat displays the fee clearly before checkout and itemizes it on the receipt, customers have full visibility into what they're being charged — which significantly reduces dispute risk. In the event of a chargeback, the surcharge line item is documented in the transaction record, giving you clear evidence that the fee was disclosed and consented to prior to purchase. moat's disclosure workflow is designed specifically to protect merchants in dispute scenarios.
Still have questions?

Our team knows surcharging compliance inside and out. We're happy to walk through your specific setup before you commit to anything.

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on the table?

Every state rule, applied in real time to every transaction.
No compliance guesswork.

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