The purpose of a surcharge is to pass on the payment processing fees to the end user, so the merchant receives the full amount of the payin. Rainforest offers a BIN lookup feature to enable your integration to compliantly surcharge when processing payments with the Rainforest Payment Component.

Surcharging

The fees are defined by the merchant billing profile. In the standard net billing model, for a $100 payin, the merchant receives a deposit for $97.00, net the billing fees of $3.

For the merchant to receive $100 in their deposit, then you'll need to charge the end user extra to cover the payment processing fees. The merchant can pass on the processing fees to the end user so that the merchant receives $100 in their deposit by implementing surcharging. The formula to calculate the correct amount of the payin in order to pass on the billing fees to the end user is:

For example, for a $100 payin, the amount of the payin should be $103.09 so the merchant receives exactly $100 in their deposit.

It's important to note that the fee is not just the billing fees of $100, which would be $3 in the standard billing model. You must utilize the above formula to calculate the correct surcharge amount.

Surcharging compliance

The merchant is responsible for ensuring surcharging practices are compliant with any card brand rules and any applicable regulations and laws.

There are general surcharging regulations that apply Nationwide as well as state dependent. Rainforest does not give legal advice on surcharging and the following list of general surcharging regulations are recommendations.

The platform must give the merchant the option to enable or disable surcharging to ensure compliance with state regulations.

General rules

Can only surcharge on credit cards and does not apply to debit cards.
The end user must be informed of the surcharge before processing the payin and displayed on the receipt.
Surcharge rate cannot be more than what the merchant is billed for the payment.
Surcharge rate cannot exceed 4%, and Visa credit cards cannot exceed 3%.
Do not allow merchants to surcharge in states where surcharging is prohibited.

State rules

There are states that prohibit surcharging, or allow surcharging with additional regulations. Merchants must comply to their state regulations and the platform must provide the ability for the merchant to surcharge compliantly by allowing the merchant to enable or disable surcharging depending on the merchant's state regulations.

BIN lookup

A Bank Identification Number (BIN) is the first 8 digits of a card number, and can be utilized to identify the following information about the card:

Card brand (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express)
Card type (Credit, Debit, or Prepaid)
Country
Business Card
Healthcare Card

In order to compliantly surcharge, you can utilize BIN lookup with the Rainforest Payment Component to receive information about the credit card, such as if it's a credit card or debit card, as the user inputs their card number into the Payment Component.

The Payment Component supports updating the amount and other information by updating the payin config. Head over to the enable surcharging with BIN lookup guide for step by step instructions on how to compliantly surcharge.

BIN lookup billing

Each BIN lookup request incurs a BIN lookup fee that can be passed onto the merchant via the merchant billing profile. The BIN lookup request occurs each time the end user inputs the full card number into the Payment Component. For example, if the end user inputs their card number and then inputs a different card number, then this payment interaction would incur 2 BIN lookup fees.

In the merchant's daily funding deposit, an adjustment will be included for all BIN lookup requests the day before with an 11pm daily cutoff.

For example, the merchant's deposit on May 16, 2025 would include an adjustment for the BIN lookup requests between May 14th 11:00pm ET and May 15th 11:00pm ET.