Surcharging eligibility depends on more than the cardholder's billing state — industry classification, card-brand category rules, and merchant licensing all factor in. moat handles each layer per transaction.
Surcharging in a regulated vertical involves multiple rule layers: state law, card-brand rules, merchant category, and product-specific restrictions. moat applies all of them at the transaction level.
BIN lookup and the cardholder's billing address determine, on each transaction, whether a surcharge is permitted under that state's rules. The check runs every time, not just at signup.
Debit and prepaid cards are not surcharged. Commercial cards are handled per the card-brand rules in effect at time of authorization, not at signup.
Every transaction generates an itemized receipt with the base price, the surcharge amount, and the surcharge rate broken out separately. The disclosure trail is logged and exportable.
On a full refund, the full surcharge is returned. On a partial refund, the proportional surcharge is returned. This is enforced at the API level rather than left to merchant discretion.
Visa caps the surcharge at the merchant's effective discount rate or 3%, whichever is lower. Mastercard's cap is calculated separately. moat applies whichever cap is binding for the card presented.
Every surcharge — collected, refunded, or declined — is itemized in the dashboard and exposed via API. Reconciliation against the processing statement is line-level.
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A note on eligibility. Vertical-level eligibility depends on the merchant's specific profile, not just the category label. Talk to us before assuming a vertical is or isn't a fit — the underwriting answer is usually more nuanced than a label suggests.