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Chicago neighborhood rooms, suburban retail corridors and downstate family restaurants. We install and support POS systems and card processing across Illinois, including the interchange change arriving in 2027.
Illinois passed the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which stops card processors from charging interchange on the sales tax and gratuity portions of a transaction. The core provision survived its first court challenge, then drew a federal preemption order from the OCC that may exempt national banks, and the effective date moved to July 1, 2027.
The part that matters to an operator is not legal, it is operational. To claim the exemption, a merchant has to transmit tax and gratuity data separately to the acquirer at the time of the transaction. That is a POS capability. A restaurant running a system that cannot split those fields will not benefit whatever the courts eventually decide.
We are tracking it, and it is a live consideration in what we recommend to Illinois operators today. A system bought this year should still be in service in 2027.
Illinois at a glance
Illinois permits surcharging, and the compliance weight sits almost entirely on disclosure. The rule that catches people is that it applies to every channel, not just the counter.
The rules, in short
Last reviewed 1 September 2026. Card fee law changes, and this is general information about how we configure systems, not legal advice. Confirm your position with your attorney before launching a program.
The disclosure requirement is the one that catches Illinois operators running online ordering. A surcharge disclosed at the counter but missing from the web checkout is a compliance gap, and it is a common one.
We support and process on all three. Which one fits depends on your service style, your menu, and how many locations you run.
Runs online ordering and tableside on one system, which is exactly what the Illinois all-channel disclosure rule asks for.
Straightforward for suburban retail and counter service, with disclosure settings that carry through to the online checkout.
Open processing and built-in dual pricing, with the field-level control the 2027 tax and gratuity rule is going to require.
On-site and remote install and support across the state. If your town is not on this list, it does not mean we cannot get to you.
Yes, with disclosure. Illinois requires that customers be told about the surcharge across in-person, online and phone transactions, and the fee has to show as its own line item on the receipt. Debit cards may not be surcharged.
It prohibits card processors from charging interchange on the sales tax and gratuity portions of a transaction. A federal court upheld that core provision, the OCC has issued a preemption order that may exempt national banks, and the effective date is now July 1, 2027. If it stands, you will need a POS that transmits tax and gratuity as separate data fields to benefit from it.
Not urgently. But if you are replacing a system this year anyway, buy one that can transmit tax and gratuity as separate fields, because retrofitting that capability later is harder than specifying it now.
Both. Chicago and the collar counties are the largest part of the work, and we also install in Rockford, Peoria, Springfield, Champaign and the Quad Cities.
Chicago's combined rate is 10.25%, among the highest in the country, and additional restaurant taxes apply in parts of the city. The POS has to be configured to the exact address rather than a state or county default, and we verify it against your first close.
The card fee rules and the hardware answer both change by state. These go into detail for Illinois specifically.
Whether you have a question or you are ready to switch, we will walk you through pricing, hardware and setup. No pressure.
