Oklahoma Credit Card Surcharge Law (14A O.S. 2-211, SB 677)

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This page is general information, not legal advice. It is current as of September 16, 2026, and quotes or summarizes the primary sources listed at the end. Surcharge rules change through new laws, amendments and court cases, so check current rules with your processor and your own counsel before you add a card fee. CELER Merchants is an independent merchant services agent, not a law firm or a processor. The text summarized here is from the enrolled version of Senate Bill 677 published by the Oklahoma Legislature. The Legislature's bill history records that the bill became law without the Governor's signature on May 28, 2025, and section 3 of the bill sets the effective date as November 1, 2025.

What changed in 2025

Before SB 677, 14A O.S. 2-417 dealt with surcharges for using a credit card or debit card. Section 2 of SB 677 repealed that section. Section 1 rewrote 14A O.S. 2-211, which now covers both cash discounts and surcharges. The bill's title describes the changes as increasing options for discounts, requiring disclosure for certain discounts, clarifying the use of surcharges, requiring notice for surcharges and limiting their amount. If you read an older guide that says Oklahoma bans surcharges, it predates this change.

The surcharge rules in 14A O.S. 2-211(B)

Subsection B says no seller may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to pay by credit card instead of cash, check or similar means unless the seller meets two requirements. First, notice displaying the amount of the surcharge must be clearly and conspicuously posted at the point of entry and the point of sale for in-person transactions, and on the home page and the point-of-sale webpage for online transactions. For phone transactions, the notice, including all required information, must be given verbally. Second, no surcharge may exceed 2% of the total transaction or the actual amount charged to the person or retailer to process the credit card transaction, whichever is less. The subsection adds that a customer is not considered to have chosen to pay by credit card if the business accepts only credit cards at the time of the transaction.

Definitions that matter

Subsection E defines a surcharge as any additional amount imposed by a person, entity or retailer at the time of a credit card transaction that increases the amount of the transaction for the use of a credit card as payment. A seller is any person, entity or retailer doing business in Oklahoma in any sales, service or lease transaction, including consumer credit sales. A credit card is any instrument or device, whatever it is called, issued by an issuer for the cardholder to obtain money, goods, services or anything of value on credit. The surcharge definition is written around credit card transactions, and Visa and Mastercard rules separately prohibit surcharging debit and prepaid cards, so do not surcharge debit in Oklahoma.

Cash discounts

Subsection A says a discount offered to induce payment by cash, check, debit card or similar means rather than by credit card is not a credit service charge under section 2-109 if it is offered to all prospective buyers clearly and conspicuously under the regulations of the Administrator of Consumer Credit. There is no limit on the size of the discount. A seller who provides a discount that does not follow the regulations must disclose that information to the Administrator. We did not review the Administrator's regulations for this page, so check current rules with the Oklahoma Department of Consumer Credit or counsel before running a discount program.

Exceptions in the statute

Subsection C lets a seller registered with the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a money transmitter, providing electronic funds transmission services, charge a different price based on the mode of transmission, as long as the card price is not greater than the cash price within the same mode. Subsection D requires those sellers to either do business at an Oklahoma location or comply with 18 O.S. 1022. Subsection F lets private educational institutions, private schools, municipalities and public trusts with a municipality as beneficiary charge a service fee limited to bank processing and financial transaction fees, secure transaction costs, portal fees and bandwidth costs for online transactions. SB 677 does not set out penalties, so ask counsel how violations are enforced.

What Oklahoma merchants should do

1. Work out your actual cost to accept credit cards from your processing statements. 2. Set any surcharge at or below the lower of 2% or that cost, which is below Visa's 3% ceiling. 3. Post the amount at your entrance and register, and on your website's home page and checkout page. 4. Say the amount out loud on phone orders. 5. Configure your terminal and gateway so debit and prepaid cards are never surcharged. 6. If you accept only credit cards, do not surcharge. 7. Give your acquirer at least 30 days' notice before you start, as Visa requires.

How card network rules fit in

Every US merchant who accepts Visa also has to follow Visa's rules, whatever state law allows. Visa's U.S. Merchant Surcharge Q&A says to notify your acquirer at least 30 days before you start surcharging, to limit surcharging to credit cards (debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged, even when a debit cardholder selects "credit"), to keep the amount at or below your merchant discount rate for that card or 3%, whichever is lowest, and to disclose the surcharge at the point of entry, at the point of sale and on every receipt. Mastercard, American Express and Discover set their own conditions, so check current rules for each network you accept. Where a state rule and a network rule differ, follow the stricter one. In Oklahoma the state cap of 2% or actual cost is lower than Visa's 3% ceiling, so the state cap is the one that usually binds.

If you also sell in other states

Colorado also caps surcharges at 2% but requires statutory sign wording (C.R.S. 5-2-212). New Jersey caps them at actual cost with specific sign locations. Kansas and Texas, Oklahoma's neighbors, have their own rules or none we could confirm, so check the state-by-state table and set surcharging per location.