Card Minimums and Maximums: What You Can Require

Card minimums are legal in the US. Card maximums, for almost everybody, are not. And the rules for both are narrower than the handwritten sign taped to most counters suggests.

Two layers govern this. The Durbin Amendment set the statutory floor, at 15 U.S.C. 1693o-2(b)(3), and Visa's Core Rules (18 April 2026) implement it. They agree on the substance, which makes this one of the clearer corners of card acceptance.

Here's the short version. You may require a minimum of up to $10, on credit cards only, applied evenly. You almost certainly may not set a maximum at all.

The Default Is No Limits At All#

Start where the rules start. A merchant must not establish a minimum or maximum transaction amount as a condition for honoring a card (ID# 0026405).

That's the baseline everywhere. Everything below is an exception carved out of it, and the exceptions are specific.

The carve-out that matters in the US applies to "a Transaction initiated with a Credit Card issued in the US Region or a US Territory used at a Merchant Outlet in the US Region or a US Territory." Read that closely, because two conditions have to hold at once. US-issued, and credit.

Minimums: Credit Only, $10 Ceiling, No Favourites#

The US rule is section 5.4.2.4 (ID# 0026410). A merchant must not set a minimum except on a transaction with a credit card issued in the US. The minimum must not exceed USD 10, and must not discriminate between issuers or between Visa and another payment network.

The statute says the same thing: a minimum dollar value is permitted for credit cards so long as it "does not differentiate between issuers or between payment card networks" and "does not exceed $10.00".

Three consequences that catch merchants out.

Debit is not covered. A minimum on a debit card transaction is prohibited, full stop. The sign that says "card minimum $5" and gets applied to a debit tap is a violation, and it's the most common version of this mistake in the wild.

Foreign-issued credit cards are not covered either. The exception is written for cards issued in the US Region or a US Territory. A tourist paying with a credit card issued abroad is entitled to buy a $2 coffee on it.

Even application, or nothing. You cannot run $10 on Visa and $15 on another network, and you cannot apply a minimum to cards from one bank but not another. The statute uses the word "differentiate" and Visa uses "discriminatory", and both are doing the same job.

One more thing worth saying plainly: $10 is a ceiling, not a target. Nothing obliges you to set one, and a $10 minimum on a business with a $6 average ticket is a decision to turn away sales.

Maximums: Almost Nobody Qualifies#

This is where most write-ups get vague, so here is the list.

Section 5.4.2.3 (ID# 0026411) says a merchant must not establish a maximum except on a US-issued credit card, and then only these merchants may do it at all:

That's the whole list. If your MCC isn't one of those three and you aren't a federal agency, you may not cap card payments. Not on high-ticket items, not on your busiest day, not because your acquirer's reserve makes you nervous.

The statute frames the same permission slightly differently, as available to "any Federal agency or institution of higher education". Visa's version resolves that into specific MCCs, which is more useful when you're trying to work out whether it applies to you. Any maximum that is allowed still can't discriminate between issuers or networks.

What To Do Instead Of A Maximum#

If large card payments are genuinely a problem for you, the answer isn't a cap you're not entitled to set.

For high-ticket sales, the real issue is usually dispute exposure rather than the payment itself, and that's an underwriting conversation. A dedicated merchant account priced for your actual ticket size solves more than a policy that turns customers away.

If the concern is cost rather than risk, the lawful levers are pricing ones. A cash discount program is expressly contemplated by the same statute, which protects a merchant's ability to offer a discount for cash, cheque, debit or credit as long as it doesn't differentiate by issuer or network. Surcharging is a different mechanism with its own rulebook, and convenience fees are a third with conditions narrow enough that most online sellers don't qualify.

Where This Doesn't Apply#

The prohibition on minimums and maximums also carves out European Economic Area transactions and domestic transactions accepted in the United Kingdom, which run under their own regime.

If you sell into those markets, don't carry your US counter policy across. And if you're a US merchant, remember the exception is about where the card was issued, not where the customer is standing.