Important! Australian properties: card surcharging ends on 1 October 2026 under the eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, American Express, JCB and China Union Pay network rules. RMS will remove Dynamic Surcharging for Australian RMS Pay properties on that date. Every other card surcharge in RMS is configured by your property and must be removed by you. For the full list of settings to check, see RBA Surcharging Ban: What It Means for Your Property.

Please Note! RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.

Overview

Dynamic Surcharging is a variable card surcharge on RMS Pay payments. The percentage charged is calculated from the card the payer presents, using the card's region, scheme, funding source, and level rather than a single flat rate.

Because the surcharge follows the card, a property can charge a different percentage for each card it accepts instead of applying one average rate to every payment. Dynamic Surcharging is configured once at the property level, and the surcharge is then passed on automatically when a payment is taken through any of the following:

• Online Form payments (e-commerce) - RMS 9+ Credit Card payments, the REST API, and anywhere else that opens the Online Payment Form.
• Credit Card Tokens saved in RMS 9+.
• Terminal payments taken on an RMS Pay Credit Card Machine or EFTPOS Terminal.

Dynamic Surcharging is not applied to payments received through Pay By Link, the Guest Portal or the RMS Booking Engine. Those channels carry their own separate surcharge settings.

Please Note! Dynamic Surcharging may not apply to tokens created before Dynamic Surcharging was enabled.

Where terminal tipping is enabled, Dynamic Surcharging applies the surcharge to both the transaction and the tip. A standard Transaction Fee applies to the transaction amount only.

Card Variants Used to Calculate the Surcharge

Dynamic Surcharging reads four attributes from the card presented, and each attribute can carry its own surcharge percentage.

Prerequisites

Complete the following checks before enabling Dynamic Surcharging.

General Ledger Account Code

Setup > Accounting > GL Acc Codes

Dynamic Surcharging posts all surcharge revenue to a single General Ledger Account Code (GL Acc Code) for Credit Card Transaction Fees. Only one GL Acc Code can be used, and an existing code can be reused if the property already has one.

Credit Card Types

Setup > Accounting > Credit Cards

Every card type the property accepts must exist in Credit Card Setup. RMS Pay can only be configured for the card types listed in the property's RMS Pay Agreement.

Please Note! The Transaction Fees setup on a Credit Card record is ignored while Dynamic Surcharging is enabled, so no Transaction Fee setup is required there.

RMS Pay Terminals: Single Tap Flow

Important! When Dynamic Surcharging is enabled, cardholders are asked to present their card twice on an RMS Pay Terminal: once to identify the card and calculate the surcharge, and again to approve the final amount. This affects the payment experience at the front desk.

RMS recommends enabling Single Tap Flow on RMS Pay Terminals so the cardholder presents the card once and the surcharge is applied automatically after the transaction starts.

To activate Single Tap Flow, submit a support ticket containing:

• The request "Please activate Single Tap Flow".
• The serial numbers of all relevant terminals.

Allow up to 72 business hours for the change to be completed.

Enable Dynamic Surcharging

Dynamic Surcharging is enabled at Setup > Accounting > RMS Pay > Dynamic Surcharging by a System Administrator.

1. Go to Setup > Accounting > RMS Pay > Dynamic Surcharging.
2. Select Enable Dynamic Surcharging.
3. Select the GL Acc Code for the Credit Card Transaction Fees.
4. 

    

The surcharge percentages are then configured in two separate sections on the same screen:

• E-Commerce Online Payments
• Credit Card/EFTPOS Terminal Payments

E-Commerce Online Payments

The E-Commerce Online Payments section sets the surcharge for every payment taken through the Online Payment Form, including RMS 9+ Credit Card payments and the REST API. It is split into three groups, each able to carry a different surcharge:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• Other Cards

Visa and Mastercard support four levels of fees, applied in this order:

1. Card Scheme
2. Region
3. Funding Source
4. Card Level/Variant

To apply one flat percentage to Visa or Mastercard, enter a percentage value next to the card scheme. To vary the surcharge by card, select Add Level to expose the next level in the order above, then enter a percentage against each variant.

Other Cards support a flat percentage only.

Please Note! A field left blank means no Transaction Fee is charged for that card configuration.

Suggested surcharge percentages are listed in the property's RMS Pay Agreement.

Credit Card/EFTPOS Terminal Payments

The Credit Card/EFTPOS Terminal Payments section sets the surcharge for payments taken on an RMS Pay Terminal. It is split into the same three groups:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• Other Cards

Please Note! The label on this section reflects the label your property has configured for this payment type in System Labels, so it may differ from the one shown here.

Terminals support three levels of fee, applied in this order:

1. Region
2. Card Scheme
3. Funding Source

Terminals do not recognise the Premium and Standard card variants, so the Card Level/Variant level is not available.

Enter the relevant surcharge percentage in each field for Visa, Mastercard and Other Cards, then select the Save & Exit icon. The new surcharges take effect immediately for E-Commerce Online Payments.

Please Note! A field left blank means no Transaction Fee is charged for that card configuration.

Update and Restart RMS Pay Terminals

RMS Pay Terminals pick up a change to Dynamic Surcharging at their next scheduled sync, which runs automatically every three hours. To apply the change straight away, update and restart each terminal.

To update the configuration:

1. Access Admin & Settings by pressing 9 and then Confirm (green key).
2. Select Config.
3. Enter the passcode and confirm with the green key.
4. Select Update.

To restart the terminal after the update:

1. Go to Admin & Settings.
2. Select Power.
3. Enter the passcode and confirm with the green key.
4. Select Restart.
5. When prompted with Restart Application, select Yes.

How the Surcharge Appears When a Payment Is Taken

A Dynamic Surcharge is added to an RMS Pay receipt in three ways, depending on how the payment is taken:

1. Online Form Payments (e-commerce), covering RMS 9+ Credit Card payments, the REST API, and anywhere else that opens the Online Payment Form.
2. Tokens saved in RMS 9+.
3. Credit Card Machine/EFTPOS Terminals.

Online Form Payments

When a payment is taken on the Online Payment Form, the surcharge is added to the charge automatically and the payer sees the total before confirming.

In the example above, a domestic Visa credit card carries a 3% surcharge, so a $100 charge is presented to the payer as $103.

The surcharge amount is not displayed separately on the Online Payment Form.

Tokens

When an existing Credit Card Token is used in RMS 9+, the surcharge configured under E-Commerce Online Payments is added to the charge.

The surcharge amount is displayed on the Existing Token Fee line above the Total Charge.

Credit Card Machine/EFTPOS Terminals

When a payment is taken on a Credit Card or EFTPOS Terminal, the surcharge configured under Credit Card/EFTPOS Terminal Payments is used.

The receipt amount is entered into the terminal first.

After the card is presented, a second screen displays the total charge and the transaction fee for confirmation.

Once confirmed, the terminal presents the total amount to pay.