What is card surcharge and how does it work?
What is card surcharge?
Card surcharge allows you to add an additional fee to certain card payments to help cover higher processing costs.
The surcharge only applies to:
Business/corporate cards
Cards issued outside the European Economic Area (EEA)
Instead of absorbing these higher transaction costs yourself, the fee is added to the payment made with the eligible card.
Why use surcharge?
Some card types are significantly more expensive to process than regular consumer cards.
With surcharge, you can:
Reduce the impact of high transaction fees
Keep your regular pricing unchanged
Recover costs on expensive card payments
This is especially relevant for businesses that often accept:
Business cards
International cards
Tourist payments
B2B payments
When does surcharge apply?
Surcharge is only applied when:
The feature has been enabled for your business
The customer uses an eligible card:
Business/corporate card
Non-EEA card
It does not apply to personal debit or credit cards issued within the EEA.
Eligible cards are identified automatically during payment.
What does the customer see during payment?
Depending on your setup, customers may see a confirmation screen before payment approval.
The screen can display:
The surcharge amount
The total amount including surcharge
Example:
Purchase amount: 1,600 DKK
Surcharge: 98 DKK
Total amount: 1,698 DKK
Customers can then:
Accept and continue
Cancel the payment
Use a different card
If the confirmation screen is disabled, the surcharge is applied automatically and shown in the final payment result.
How is surcharge shown in reporting?
The surcharge is included in the total transaction amount.
In transaction details, you will see:
Total amount including surcharge
Separate surcharge line item
How are refunds handled?
Refunds always include the full amount, including surcharge.
Example:
Customer paid: 103.50 DKK
Refund amount: 103.50 DKK
Important compliance information
Surcharging consumer cards issued within the EEA is not allowed.
The surcharge percentage should reflect your actual processing costs and must not be used to generate profit.
You are also responsible for informing customers about any applied surcharge.
How is surcharge enabled?
Surcharge is currently enabled with help from the Vibrant team.
Configuration is handled together with Customer Support based on your preferred setup.
At the moment, surcharge is only available:
In Vibrant’s terminal app
For selected in-store setups
It is not currently available for:
Chip & Pin terminals
E-commerce payments
Need help getting started?
Contact Vibrant Support or your account contact if you want to enable surcharge or learn more about the setup.
