With surcharging set up on the Lightspeed Payment terminals, you can pass on merchant fees to your customers.
The payment terminal shows the purchase amount and prompts the customer to present their card. Based on the card that the shopper presents, the terminal calculates the surcharge. You will not see the surcharge on the POS or the terminal (unless you have Consent Enabled surcharging switched on). You can confirm the surcharge has been processed at settlement and on the POS and terminal receipts.
Australian customers, please note that from a legal standpoint, a small sign warning customers of the surcharge placed on a counter near the payment terminal or your POS will usually suffice as required notice, however, we do encourage all users to check with the relevant regulations in their locality.
What’s in this guide
Enabling surcharging for payments on terminal | 3 mins
Config Update terminals | 3 mins
Update IP address | 3 mins
Before you begin
You’ll need:
- Confirmation from the Support team that Surcharging has been enabled (see Enabling Surcharging for payments on terminal)
- A sign in your venue to let customers know that transactions attract a surcharge (see Do I need to tell my customers that there is a surcharge?)
Enabling surcharging for payments on terminal
The first step is to reach out to Lightspeed Support and request 'I would like to enable surcharging'.
- Log in to Lightspeed POS or Back Office
- Select Help & Support, Talk to the Support Team
- A chat window will appear in the page, Select Send us a message.
- Select Payments, then Lightspeed Payments, and I would like to enable surcharging. This is also where you can enable Consent should you wish to display the surcharge for the customers on the terminal.
A request to enable surcharging will be triggered to our Payment Operations team to action. This can take up to 5 business days to be completed.
You will receive an email from an @lightspeedhq.com address when your terminal has been activated for surcharging.
Config Update terminals
Once you have received confirmation your terminal has been activated for surcharging, update your terminals.
- Select 1 and then the Confirm key to go to your terminal menu (For the E280 model to get to the terminal menu, select the small square, bottom right Select Admin).
- Choose Config and then Update
This will restart your terminal. Once it has restarted, surcharging will be enabled.
Update IP address
After the software update, you may experience an IP address change which will prevent your terminals from working. Follow the steps below to re-pair the terminal to your network.
Check IP addresses
- On the terminal, hit 5, and confirm to check IP address
- From POS, hit the three bar menu. Select Lightspeed Payments and you will be taken to the Lightspeed Payments Pairing screen
If the IP addresses do not match up, resync your terminal and Lightspeed app.
- From POS, go to the three bar menu and select Lightspeed Payments
- Hit Refresh terminal info on the pairing screen.
- Go back to POS, and go to the three bar menu, hit Sync
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to tell my customers that there is a surcharge?
Yes. It is a legal requirement to tell customers there will be a surcharge on top of their payment. This can be displayed somewhere visible instore but does not have to be displayed on the eftpos machine. Read more about ACL’s legislation here: Exemption for restaurants and cafés
Where can I find Lightspeed-branded templates for surcharging signage?
The following links contain digital files for a Lightspeed branded sign that you can, download, print and display at your venue.
What is Consent Enabled surcharging?
At checkout the customer is shown a screen with the sales total and then the card transaction fee. Consent Enabled surcharging is when the customer must either consent by selecting confirm or reject by selecting the red cancel button on the terminal.
Can I view my surcharge totals in Insights?
You can see the surcharges in your Transactions Summary report.
Does the surcharge show on the customer's receipt?
The customer's receipt that prints out from the V400 EFTPOS terminal will show the sales total including the surcharge. It does not show the surcharge as a separate line item.
The receipt printed from POS shows the surcharge amount and the total amount including the surcharge. (POS receipt with surcharge line below.)
Can my terminals be set up differently?
Surcharging is done at site level, meaning terminals will either all have surcharging turned off, or all on.
Can I only surcharge the AMEX transactions and not the credit card ones? Or vice versa.
Not presently. The rates are fixed at your quoted rate e.g. 1.3% (exc. GST) for credit cards and for AMEX the payment rate is always 2.5% (exc. GST).