Act 751 Explained: Louisiana's Debit Card Surcharge Ban, and What Merchants Should Do Now

On August 1, Louisiana's Act 751 took effect. If you have heard it called SB 254, that is the same law. It passed as Senate Bill 254 and became Act 751 when it was signed.

The short version: you cannot add a surcharge to a debit card transaction in Louisiana. Not a "convenience fee," not a "non-cash adjustment" that only shows up at the register, not a percentage tacked on when the customer pays with their bank card. If the card is a debit card and the price goes up because of it, that is what the law prohibits.

We run act751.com, the plain-English guide to this law, and since August 1 the questions have not stopped. So here are the answers we give most often.

Why most merchants breaking the law don't know it

Here is the part that surprises people: surcharging debit cards was never actually allowed. Card brand rules prohibited it long before Louisiana did. What changed on August 1 is that it stopped being a rule between you and the card networks and became state law.

The reason so many businesses are out of compliance is not bad intent. It is a POS setting. A lot of processors sold "zero fee" or "surcharge" programs that apply a fee to every card that gets tapped or dipped, debit included. The merchant was told the program handled compliance. In many cases it did not, and the merchant finds out from a customer complaint.

If your terminal adds a fee to every card automatically, that is the first thing to check.

Surcharge vs. cash discount: the distinction that matters

The law bans debit surcharges. It does not ban cash discounting, and that distinction is the whole ballgame.

• A surcharge starts from a card price and adds a fee for using a card.
• A cash discount starts from a posted regular price and gives a discount to customers who pay cash.

Done correctly, with the right signage, the right receipt language, and the right POS configuration, a cash discount program lets you keep eliminating your processing costs without running into Act 751. We wrote a full breakdown of the difference in Cash Discount vs. Surcharge: What's Actually Legal in Louisiana Now.

The trap is "cash discount" programs that are really surcharges wearing a name tag. If the register starts from a low price and adds a fee at checkout, calling it a cash discount does not make it one.

What to do this week

1. Test your own register. Ring up a small sale and pay with a debit card. If a fee appears, you have a compliance problem today.
2. Check your signage. Your posted prices and your register math have to tell the same story.
3. Ask your processor a direct question: "Is my program applying fees to debit cards?" Get the answer in writing.
4. Read the law for yourself. We built act751.com for exactly this. It is free, it is written in plain English, and it is kept current.

Where ZeroPoint fits

We are a local Louisiana payments company and an Authorized Clover Reseller, and we set up compliant cash discount programs for merchants across South Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. It is what we do all day: the POS configuration, the signage, the receipt language, all of it. We stand behind that setup with our Compliance Guarantee.

If you are not sure where your current setup stands, reach out. The check takes minutes, and finding out from us beats finding out from a customer complaint.