Key Highlights

  • Card surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa ended on 1 October 2026.
  • Businesses can still reflect card costs in overall pricing, review payment plans, shop around for providers and offer discounts for particular payment methods.
  • Lower interchange caps are expected to reduce merchants’ card costs by around $910 million a year.

The ban on card surcharges that began on 1 October removes one way of recovering payment costs, but the Reserve Bank's guidance makes clear that discounts for particular payment methods, and overall pricing, remain available to businesses.

"Those costs can be reflected in a business's overall pricing." That single line from the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) frequently asked questions on its retail payments reforms captures the shift that took place on 1 October 2026. From that date, businesses can no longer add a surcharge because a customer pays with an eftpos, Mastercard or Visa card — whether debit, prepaid or credit.

What the reform does not do is require businesses to absorb card costs without any response. The RBA's FAQ sets out a range of options that remain open, including offering a discount for paying a particular way — an approach that runs in the opposite direction to a surcharge.

This explainer walks through what the RBA has said businesses can still do, where the lines are drawn, and which charges sit outside the ban altogether. It describes the RBA's guidance as published and does not offer business, pricing or legal advice. Where the RBA's material is silent on a question, this article does not attempt to fill the gap.

The options the FAQ sets out

According to the RBA's FAQ, businesses responding to the end of card surcharging can:

  • Reflect costs in overall pricing. Card acceptance costs can be built into the prices a business charges, rather than added as a separate line at the point of payment.
  • Review payment plans. Businesses can look at the arrangements they have for accepting card payments.
  • Shop around for providers. Businesses can compare payment service providers.
  • Offer discounts for particular payment methods. A business may offer a lower price for paying in a particular way, with ACCC guidance on pricing displays applying.

The distinction between a surcharge and a discount comes down to direction. A surcharge adds an amount on top of the displayed price when a customer pays by card, and that is what has been removed on the designated networks. A discount reduces the price for a chosen payment method, and the FAQ indicates that remains permissible, subject to the ACCC's guidance on how prices are displayed.

Why the costs of acceptance are coming down

The reforms were designed to reduce what merchants pay to accept cards, not just to change how those costs are passed on. The RBA estimated that its changes would lower wholesale card payment costs for merchants "by around $910 million per year".

Much of that comes from lower caps on interchange fees, which also took effect on 1 October. The domestic debit and prepaid cap fell to 8 cents (or 0.16% for percentage-based fees) from 10 cents or 0.2%. The domestic consumer credit cap fell to 0.3% from 0.8%. The commercial credit cap remains at 0.8%, while a new single 1.0% cap applies to transactions on foreign-issued cards, which were previously unregulated. The RBA expects small businesses to benefit most.

Transparency is also part of the package. Designated card networks are to publish aggregate interchange and scheme fee data quarterly, with breakdowns including domestic and international, debit and credit, card-present and card-not-present, and tokenised transactions. Some payment-cost transparency changes are scheduled to take effect on 1 April 2027.

The RBA's estimates set out the scale of the old system. According to the review, "Consumers are estimated to be paying $1.6 billion of a total $1.8 billion in card payment surcharges" each year on the designated networks, even though surcharging was confined to "the 16 per cent of merchants that currently surcharge" at the time of the review.

Fees outside the ban's reach

The ban is narrowly targeted. It covers only surcharges added because a customer pays by card. Other charges a business may apply are not affected, including:

  • weekend and public holiday surcharges
  • booking fees
  • service fees
  • fees that payment service providers charge businesses for terminals and processing

Surcharges on payment methods other than cards are not regulated by the RBA. American Express also removed card surcharging from 1 October, although Amex is not formally regulated by the RBA.

Where exemptions do and don't apply

The FAQ also addresses several situations in which businesses might have expected different treatment.

Business-to-business transactions are not exempt unless network rules or the law provide otherwise. Not-for-profit organisations are not exempt. Invoices issued before 1 October but paid on or after that date may no longer be surcharged. Taxis remain under state and territory regulation. For businesses whose prices are regulated, the RBA has informed governments and price regulators.

On the broader question of carve-outs, the RBA is explicit about where the decision sits: "Whether any exemptions are available is a decision for each card network, not the RBA."

For a business that previously relied on a surcharge, then, the practical effect is a change in the method of recovery rather than a ban on recovering costs at all. Under the FAQ, the cost of accepting cards can be recovered through the prices a business sets, and price differences between payment methods can be expressed as discounts, within ACCC guidance, rather than as card surcharges. The FAQ's other suggestions — reviewing payment plans and comparing providers — address the size of the cost itself rather than how it is recovered. Businesses with questions about their particular arrangements may wish to check with their payment provider or the relevant card network.

The RBA's broader payments agenda continues alongside these changes. Ellis Connolly, Head of the RBA's Payments Policy Department, is scheduled to take part in a fireside chat at the AFIA conference in Sydney at 9.50 am AEDT on 20 October.

The bottom line

Card surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa ended on 1 October 2026, but the RBA's FAQ makes clear that businesses can still reflect card costs in overall pricing, review payment plans, shop around for providers and offer discounts for particular payment methods, subject to ACCC guidance on pricing displays. Weekend, public holiday, booking and service fees are unaffected, and lower interchange caps are expected to reduce merchants' card costs by around $910 million a year.

A card-specific charge cannot be made permissible merely by describing it as a service or booking fee. Genuine charges unrelated to the selected payment card require separate treatment.