Cash Discount Calculator
Raise your posted price and give cash clients a discount off it. See the new card price, the cash price and how much of your card fees it covers. Tips are left out.
Your salon
Your result
New posted price (card price)
$51.55
Cash price
$50.00
3% off the posted price. The same as today.
Card clients pay 3.09% more than today. Cash clients pay what they pay today.
Card fees on services today
$496 a month
What the change brings in
after the extra card fees on the higher price
$480 a month
$5,766 a year
Share of today's card fees covered
97%
Assumes every client keeps paying the way they do now and keeps coming back. Card fees on tips are not included.
Cash discount or surcharge? The rules
Last checked: 2026-11-13
- 1
A cash discount comes off the posted price[1]
Your posted price is the card price, and cash clients get a discount off it. Adding a fee on top of the posted price at checkout is a surcharge, whatever you call it.
- 2
Visa caps credit surcharges at 3%[2]
A surcharge can go on credit cards only, never on debit or prepaid cards, and Visa caps it at 3%. Your processor must be told before you start.
- 3
Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine ban surcharges[3]
Merchants in these three states cannot add a card surcharge. Maine's ban covers debit cards too. A discount for paying cash is not a surcharge.
- 4
Colorado caps surcharges at 2%[4]
If your salon is in Colorado, a credit card surcharge cannot be more than 2%.
- 5
Not legal advice
State laws and card network rules change, and some add disclosure rules of their own. Check with your processor before you change your prices or your signs.
Sources
- Visa U.S. surcharging rules: 3% cap from April 15, 2023, credit only (summary by ArentFox Schiff)
- Maine Revised Statutes, Title 9-A, §8-509 (surcharge prohibition; a discount is not a surcharge)
- Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 140D, §28A
- Connecticut General Statutes §42-133ff
- Colorado Revised Statutes §5-2-212