The economics of zero-cost processing are simple: the cost of card acceptance is presented to the cardholder rather than absorbed by the merchant. The card brands permit this. What they do not permit is doing it carelessly, and the difference between a durable program and one that ends in a fine is almost entirely procedural.
Three failure points recur. Disclosure: the surcharge must be disclosed at the point of entry and at the point of sale, before the transaction is completed, in specific language. Ceilings: a surcharge may not exceed the merchant's actual cost of acceptance, and is capped by the card brands regardless. Debit: surcharging a debit or prepaid card is prohibited outright, which means the program has to distinguish debit from credit at authorization and treat the two differently.
A cash-discount program inverts the framing — a single posted price with a discount for cash — and carries a different, generally lighter set of obligations. It is not, however, a license to relabel a surcharge. Programs that post a card price and describe the difference as a discount are surcharge programs wearing a costume, and they are assessed as such.
State law adds a second layer that has moved considerably in the last decade. The practical position today is that surcharging is permitted in most states, with a handful imposing additional disclosure requirements. Any provider quoting you a national program without asking what state you operate in has told you something useful about the program.
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