Illinois is the odd one out in this series: it’s the only state so far with an actual, enacted credit-card-fee statute on the books. It’s called the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, and if you came here to ask whether a merchant can add a surcharge to your bill for paying by card, the answer is still no dedicated state law either way, because IFPA regulates a completely different fee. And as of June 2026, most of what IFPA does regulate has been blocked by a federal banking regulator anyway.

Two Different Fees, Often Confused

A surcharge is a fee a merchant adds to your bill because you chose to pay by credit card instead of cash. An interchange fee is a completely different fee, paid by the merchant to the card network and the card-issuing bank on every transaction, card or no surcharge involved. Several “Illinois surcharge law” roundups blur these together, describing IFPA as if it capped what a store can add at checkout. It doesn’t. IFPA restricts what banks and card networks can collect from the merchant on the tax and tip portion of a sale. It says nothing about what a merchant can charge the customer.

What the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act Actually Does

The Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, 815 ILCS 151, was enacted as part of the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget implementation act (Public Act 103-592, signed June 7, 2024). It bars card networks and issuing banks from charging or collecting an interchange fee on the portion of an electronic payment attributable to Illinois state and local sales tax or a gratuity, as long as the merchant transmits that tax and tip information to its acquiring bank at the time of payment. It would make Illinois the first state to reach into that specific slice of a card transaction. It was originally scheduled to take effect July 1, 2026.

The Law Collided With a Federal Preemption Fight

Banking and credit union trade groups, including the American Bankers Association, sued to block IFPA before it took effect, arguing federal banking law preempts a state from regulating what national banks and card networks can charge. In Illinois Bankers Association v. Raoul, Chief Judge Virginia Kendall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled in February 2026 that the interchange-fee restriction survived: the card networks, not the banks themselves, set interchange rates, so the court found no federal preemption on that piece. She did strike down IFPA’s separate data-use restriction as preempted.

That wasn’t the end of it. In April 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an interim final order (OCC Bulletin 2026-17) concluding that federal law does preempt IFPA’s interchange-fee restriction after all, for national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches of foreign banks, and community banks under the OCC’s supervision. The Seventh Circuit vacated Judge Kendall’s February ruling and sent the case back for reconsideration in light of the OCC’s order. On June 1, 2026, she issued a new opinion, this time permanently enjoining Illinois from enforcing IFPA’s interchange restriction against national banks, federal savings associations, out-of-state state banks covered by the Riegle-Neal Act, and the card networks themselves, per legal reporting from Consumer Finance Monitor. Illinois-chartered state banks and credit unions are still nominally covered, which is a narrow slice of the market that actually processes most Illinois card transactions.

The same week, Illinois lawmakers delayed the law’s effective date a second time, from July 1, 2026 to July 1, 2027, a move NPR Illinois reported was driven by the regulatory confusion the OCC order created. So the practical state of play: the law that would apply to most transactions has not taken effect, is delayed another year, and has already been enjoined against the banks and networks that handle the overwhelming majority of Illinois card volume.

What This Means If You’re Charged a Fee in Illinois Right Now

For interchange, nothing has changed for you as a shopper. IFPA was never in effect, Visa and Mastercard are still collecting their normal interchange rate on the full transaction, tax and tip included, and that’s true whether you’re at a Chicago restaurant or a downstate gas station. This fee is invisible to you either way; it’s built into the price the merchant already pays, not a line item you see.

For surcharging, the fee you might actually see on a receipt, Illinois still has no dedicated statute. A 2025 bill, SB1931, would have barred merchants from surcharging unless they also accepted cash for transactions under $1,000. It was referred to the Senate’s Assignments committee the day it was filed and never advanced; its status is recorded as dead as of June 1, 2026. Without a state rule, the constraint comes from the card networks:

• Visa caps surcharges at 3% of the transaction.
• Mastercard caps surcharges at 4%.
• The surcharge can never exceed the merchant’s actual cost of accepting the card, so the real ceiling is whichever cap is lower.
• Signage disclosing the surcharge is required at the store entrance and again at the point of sale, or before an online checkout completes.
• The surcharge must appear as its own line item on the receipt.
• The merchant has to notify its acquiring bank before it starts surcharging.

Federal law adds one more restriction: the Durbin Amendment bars surcharging debit card transactions, regardless of state law.

If a surcharge fails any of those checks, the complaint path is the Illinois Attorney General’s consumer complaint form, not a card-network chargeback.

The Card Math: Why a Flat-Rate Card Blunts the Hit

If a surcharge is coming out of your pocket, the card you use to pay changes how much of it you get back. A flat 2% cash-back card offsets roughly two-thirds of a 3% Visa surcharge and half of a 4% Mastercard surcharge, a meaningfully better outcome than a 1% card or a debit card that earns nothing.

The Citi Double Cash Card earns a flat 2% on every purchase (1% when you buy, 1% when you pay it off), no annual fee, no category tracking. It’s not built for surcharge situations specifically, but its flat, uncapped rate makes it one of the more reliable ways to claw back a fee you can’t avoid, especially compared to a card whose bonus categories don’t include “paying a merchant surcharge.”

Bottom Line

Illinois does have a real credit-card-fee law, but it targets interchange, not surcharges, and most of it is currently blocked in federal court and delayed a year besides. Merchant surcharging in Illinois is still governed only by the card networks’ own rules, the same as most states without a dedicated statute. Watch the Seventh Circuit appeal if you want to see whether IFPA’s interchange restriction ever actually reaches national banks and card networks; nothing about your receipt changes until it does.

FAQ

Q: Is it illegal for a store to charge a credit card fee in Illinois?
A: No. Illinois has no state law banning or capping merchant surcharges today. It’s legal as long as the merchant follows Visa or Mastercard’s disclosure and cap rules.

Q: What is the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act?
A: A 2024 law (815 ILCS 151) that bars card networks and issuing banks from collecting interchange fees on the sales-tax and tip portion of a card transaction. It regulates a merchant-to-bank fee, not a merchant-to-customer surcharge. It’s delayed until July 1, 2027, and has been enjoined against national banks, federal savings associations, out-of-state banks, and the card networks since June 2026.

Q: Does IFPA affect what I pay at checkout?
A: Not currently. It isn’t in effect, and even once its delayed date arrives, the entities that process most Illinois transactions are already shielded from it by a federal court injunction.

Q: What was SB1931 and did it pass?
A: A separate 2025 bill that would have required Illinois merchants to keep accepting cash as a condition of surcharging card purchases. It was referred to the Senate Assignments committee the day it was introduced and never advanced; it’s recorded as dead as of June 1, 2026.

Q: Where do I complain about an improperly disclosed surcharge in Illinois?
A: The Illinois Attorney General’s office takes consumer complaints through its online complaint form, or by phone at 1-800-386-5438 for the Chicago/Northern Illinois region.

For how the other 50 states handle this, see our state-by-state credit card surcharge law breakdown.