Clio Payments allows you to pass on credit card fees (surcharge) to your clients in Canada, helping you offset the cost of credit card processing. Surcharging applies to credit card payments only and cannot be applied to debit or prepaid cards, digital wallet payments (Apple Pay and Google Pay), or trust payments. Clio Payments ensures surcharges comply with card network rules, meaning they do not exceed your cost of acceptance and are capped at 2.4% of the transaction amount.
Review surcharging rules and requirements
Surcharging rules are enforced by major card networks such as Visa and Mastercard, and by provincial law. You will need to review the laws in your province and the rules of your provincial Law Society to ensure compliance. The list below summarizes key requirements for your reference.
Note: Surcharging is available to eligible Clio Payments customers in Canada. It is not available in Quebec, and applies to neither firms located in Quebec nor clients whose credit card billing address is in Quebec.
Important: This list is not exhaustive, and additional requirements may apply to you. You are responsible for your own compliance with card network and provincial rules.
Card networks
- Surcharges cannot exceed your cost of acceptance and are capped at 2.4% of the transaction amount. Clio applies this cap automatically.
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Visa requires the acquirer (a financial institution or payment facilitator) to be notified of an intent to surcharge 30 days before surcharging begins.
Note: Clio handles this requirement on your behalf.
- Mastercard requires you to disclose your intent to surcharge by submitting Mastercard's surcharge disclosure form no less than 30 days before surcharging begins.
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Offer clients the option to choose an alternative payment method (such as debit) that is not subject to surcharges before the surcharge is added to their bill.
Note: If your client chooses another payment option, your firm is still subject to the processing fees applicable to that payment option.
- Each surcharge appears as its own line item, with the percentage used and the total dollar amount, at the time of payment.
- Posting signage in your office is optional in Canada. You can display signage stating that surcharging applies only to credit card payments, including the surcharge amount, to give clients more transparency.
Provincial laws
Most Canadian provinces allow merchants to surcharge credit card transactions. Clio does not support surcharging in Quebec. Some provinces may have additional restrictions, so review the laws in your province.
Law Society rules
Most provincial Law Societies permit surcharging, some have not taken a position, and a few restrict it. Review the rules of professional conduct with the Law Society in your jurisdiction.
Enable surcharging
To begin surcharging with Clio Payments in Clio Manage, you will first need to call 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 provincial 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. 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 call 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.