Is it worth paying credit card surcharges to earn rewards?

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Many businesses have started adding surcharges when a customer pays with a credit card. But is the convenience — and the rewards you earn — worth the extra fee?

Whenever you swipe your credit card at a store, the credit card network, like Visa or Mastercard, charges that business a processing fee. Increasingly, businesses are passing these fees onto customers by adding surcharges when you pay with credit. Customers can often avoid these fees by paying with cash. But as a result, you miss out on the opportunity to potentially earn credit card rewards.

CNBC Select explains what credit card surcharges are, when they might be worth paying, and how you can avoid them.

A credit card surcharge is an additional fee businesses charge on purchases made with credit cards. This helps offset the swipe fees credit networks charge businesses for both credit and debit card transactions. These fees average just over 2%, sometimes up to 4% of your purchase, and according to a March 2025 study from the Merchant Payments Coalition, the combined total of credit and debit card swipe fees rose to a record high of $187.2 billion in 2024, an almost 9% increase from the year before, and 70% higher than during the pandemic.

How do surcharges work?

In general, surcharging is legal in most of the country, but the exact rules will vary between states. There are a few states, like Massachusetts, that ban credit card surcharges but allow businesses to offer discounts for customers who use cash. Generally, businesses must inform customers of these surcharges before they make a purchase.

The credit card networks limit how much businesses can charge – Visa caps surcharges at 3% while Mastercard allows a maximum of 4%.

The simplest way to avoid these fees is to pay with cash. But there are times when you might want to use your credit card anyway, even if you're facing a surcharge.

Here are a few times when it might make sense to pay the surcharge:

• You're making a small purchase: If the surcharge is a low percentage of a purchase that's small to begin with, any fee you get charged will likely be pennies. If you buy a morning coffee for $4 and there's a 1% surcharge at your local coffee shop, you're paying an extra 4 cents. That surcharge might be worth it, considering how easy it is to tap or swipe your card instead of dealing with cash.

• The rewards outweigh the fees: Say you spend $100 at a restaurant, and there's a 2% surcharge to all credit card payments. If you use your American Express® Gold Card, you could be earning up to 4X Membership Rewards® points on on purchases at restaurants worldwide, up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, and then 1X points for the rest of the year. If Amex membership Rewards points are valued at roughly 2 cents per point (according to some travel sites), those 400 points are essentially $8 in value, more than the extra $2 it costs you to use your card. Terms apply.

• You're looking for some extra security: Credit cards offer better protection than debit cards or cash regarding fraud or other issues with your purchase. You can contact your card issuer directly if you have any problems instead of relying entirely on a store's policies. Some credit cards, like the Chase Freedom Flex®, offer additional security like purchase protection or return protection. It covers eligible new purchases against damage or theft for 120 days from the purchase date, up to $500 per item.

• You're trying to earn a welcome bonus: Whether you're trying to hit your card's welcome bonus early on or at the last minute before the window closes, the surcharge might be worth it in order to complete your goal.

While many businesses are relying on credit card surcharges to help recoup some overhead costs, consumers are looking for ways to skip any extra fees they can.

One way to avoid any credit card surcharges is to use a debit card instead. Businesses can't add surcharges to purchases made with prepaid cards and debit cards. You can even earn rewards with some debit cards, like the Discover® Cashback Debit Checking. You'll avoid any surcharges and still earn 1% cash back on up to $3,000 in debit card purchases each month.

If you want to avoid credit card fees in general, you could opt to pay with cash. Paying with cash may make it harder to track your finances, so a budgeting app like Quicken Simplifi can help you keep everything in order. The app connects all your different financial accounts into one dashboard and offers additional features like customized reports and savings goals.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit card article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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