If you're still adding a card surcharge at checkout, the clock's ticking. The RBA has confirmed it's banning surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit card transactions across the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks from 1 October 2026. That's just over five weeks away. Amex has separately said it'll drop its surcharges too, even though it currently sits outside the RBA's formal ban.
Here's what's changing, why, and what I'd actually do about it before the deadline.
Why the RBA is doing this
The RBA says the twenty year old surcharging framework "is no longer achieving its intended purpose." Surcharges are often poorly disclosed, applied inconsistently, and in plenty of cases set well above what it actually costs the business to accept the card. The RBA reckons the ban will save Australian consumers around $1.6 billion a year, and save businesses roughly $200 million a year in the surcharges they currently pay each other in fees and admin.
To help offset the cost for merchants, the RBA's also lowering the interchange fee caps that banks and card schemes can charge. Consumer credit card caps are dropping to 0.3% (commercial cards stay at 0.8%), and debit interchange is being trimmed too. Card networks and payment providers will also have to publish their fees more transparently, so you can actually compare providers. A second stage of changes, foreign card interchange caps and further transparency rules, lands 1 April 2027.
What this actually means for you
From 1 October 2026, you can't add a separate surcharge line for eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments, debit, prepaid or credit. What you can still do is build your card acceptance costs into your normal pricing, the same way you'd factor in rent or insurance or any other cost of running the business. The RBA has explicitly said this is a legitimate response. Thank god, honestly, because it's what I'd have always recommended over trying to calculate and tack on the exact fee at the point of sale.
Amex and buy now pay later providers currently sit outside the RBA's designation, with a separate consultation on those due mid-2026. So don't assume every payment method gets treated identically until that lands. Though if your surcharge was already just an overhead built into your pricing structure, none of this changes anything for you.
What to do before 1 October
- Audit where you currently surcharge. Check EFTPOS terminals, your POS system, online checkout, invoices and any recurring billing. Surcharges hide in more places than people expect.
- Know your real numbers. Pull your last few merchant statements and work out what you actually pay in card acceptance fees as a percentage of turnover. That's the figure you need to fold into pricing, not the surcharge rate you've been charging customers.
- Review your pricing. Decide whether to build card costs into your list prices, absorb them as a margin cost, or a mix of both. This is a genuine pricing decision, not a compliance box to tick, so talk to me if you want help modelling the impact. And honestly, if you're serious about your numbers, you should be reviewing pricing every few years regardless.
- Check with your payment provider. Ask your bank or gateway how and when they'll switch off surcharging in your system, and whether they're passing on any benefit from the lower interchange caps.
- Update everything customer-facing. Signage, menus, website checkout pages, EFTPOS prompts, terms and conditions, staff scripts, all of it needs the surcharge references stripped out before the switch.
- Ask about least cost routing. For eligible debit transactions, least cost routing sends the transaction via the cheapest available network, which can genuinely cut your payment costs. Worth revisiting now if you've never set it up. And remember, you're the customer in this relationship. Don't be afraid to shop around or ask your provider to price match.
The cost isn't disappearing, just the line item
Surcharging is disappearing as a line item, but the underlying cost of accepting card payments isn't going anywhere. The businesses that come out ahead will be the ones who quietly fold that cost into sensible pricing well before October, not the ones scrambling in the last week of September. If you'd like help reviewing your merchant fees or modelling the pricing impact for your business, get in touch. I'm happy to walk through it with you.
This article is general information only and does not constitute financial or legal advice. Please contact me to discuss how these changes apply to your specific circumstances.
