Clio Payments allows you to pass on credit card fees (surcharge) to your clients. This helps you offset the cost of credit card processing. Clio Payments ensures surcharges comply with card brand rules, meaning they do not exceed your cost of acceptance and are capped at 3% of the transaction amount.
Review surcharging rules and requirements
Surcharging rules are enforced by major credit card networks, including Visa and Mastercard. You will need to review the laws in your state and the ethics rules of your jurisdiction's Bar association to ensure compliance. The list below summarizes key requirements for your reference.
Note: Surcharging is generally available to Clio Payments customers in the U.S. You cannot surcharge clients in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, or Puerto Rico.
Important: This list is not exhaustive, and additional requirements may apply to you.
- Mastercard requires that you provide notification of the intent to surcharge at least 30 days before surcharging commences. You can use their Merchant Surcharge Disclosure Form to submit your notification.
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Visa requires that the acquirer (a financial institution or payment facilitator) be notified of an intent to use surcharging 30 days before surcharging begins.
Note: Clio handles this requirement on your behalf.
- Post signage in your office stating that surcharging only applies to credit card payments and include the surcharge amount.
- Offer clients the option to choose an alternative payment method (such as debit or echeck) before the surcharge is added to their bill.
Enable surcharging
To begin surcharging with Clio Payments in Clio Manage, you will first need to contact Clio Support to enable the feature for your account. You will receive an email confirmation when the feature is enabled. After receiving the confirmation email and waiting the required 30 days (and meeting any additional state or card network requirements), you can turn on surcharging using the steps below.
Important: Enabling surcharging will disable the Google Pay and Apple Pay options. Surcharges are not applied to credit card payments made using the tap-to-pay feature. Once enabled, all future payments made through the links your client accesses will include the surcharge, even if the bill was sent before the feature was activated.
- Go to Settings > Online Payments.
- Click Go to Payments Settings.
- In the Payment methods card, click Manage payment methods.
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Toggle Pass on credit card fees to on.
Note: If you do not see this option, an administrator will need to contact Clio Support to enable surcharging for your firm first.
- Review the terms and conditions and check each box to indicate that you understand and accept the terms.
- Click Enable surcharging.