The ban on card surcharges that began on 1 October 2026 targets the extra cost of paying by card, not every add-on fee a Business may charge, which is why weekend, public holiday, booking and service fees can still appear on the bill.

A Sunday brunch, a concert ticket bought online, a restaurant bill on a public holiday: plenty of Australians have noticed since October that the card Surcharge line has gone from some receipts, yet an extra charge of another kind is still there. That is not necessarily a sign that a business is breaking the new rules. It reflects the specific scope of the reform the Reserve Bank of Australia finalised as part of its review of retail payments regulation.

What the October change actually covered

From 1 October 2026, surcharges were removed on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments, according to the RBA's frequently asked questions on the reform. Lower domestic interchange caps, which affect what businesses pay to accept cards, began on the same date.

The change has since spread beyond the networks the RBA regulates directly:

  • PayPal removed surcharges from 5 October 2026
  • American Express and UnionPay are also removing surcharges, although they are not formally regulated by the RBA.

The common thread is the payment method. A surcharge in this sense is an extra amount charged because a customer chose to pay with a particular card. That is the charge the reform was built to remove.

The fees that sit outside the ban

The RBA's FAQ is explicit that several familiar charges are not covered:

  • weekend and public holiday surcharges
  • booking fees
  • service fees.

It also notes that businesses are still allowed to offer discounts for particular payment methods.

Why the distinction? The FAQ sets out the coverage rather than a lengthy rationale, but the logic follows from what the reform targets. A weekend or public holiday surcharge is linked to when a customer buys, not how they pay; a cash customer and a card customer at the same café on a public holiday can face the same extra charge. A booking fee or a service fee is attached to the transaction or service itself. None of these is a charge for choosing a card over another way of paying, so none falls within a ban that is specifically about card payment surcharges.

The discount Carve-Out works the same way in reverse. A business that wants to encourage a cheaper payment method can still do so by offering a lower price for it, rather than adding a fee to a more expensive one.

Why the reform was drawn this narrowly

The narrower scope makes sense in the context of what the payments regulator is trying to fix. Ellis Connolly, the RBA's Head of Payments Policy, told the Australian Finance Industry Association on 20 October 2026: "we're really trying to put downward pressure on merchants' payment costs". The surcharge removal sits alongside lower interchange caps and new transparency rules aimed at the cost of accepting cards.

That is a payments question. Weekend penalty rates, booking platforms and service charges involve different costs and different policy areas, and the RBA's payments remit is centred on the payments system. Fees that do not depend on the payment method are, in effect, outside the problem the reform was designed to address.

There is also a practical dimension. Connolly said cards account for 75% of payments, according to a consumer survey the RBA has run every three years since 2008. A surcharge on the most common way of paying was hard for many customers to avoid.

What this means at the counter

For shoppers, the key question when an extra charge appears is what it is for.

  • If it is an added charge simply because you paid with eftpos, Mastercard or Visa, it should no longer apply from 1 October 2026.
  • If it is labelled as a weekend, public holiday, booking or service fee, it sits outside the ban as described in the RBA's FAQ.
  • If a business offers a lower price for a particular payment method, that discount remains permitted.

Where something looks like a card surcharge under another name, the RBA's FAQ points consumers to several avenues: raising it with the business, contacting the card network, or contacting the relevant state or territory consumer agency. Concerns about misleading price displays can go to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Whether a particular fee is legitimate is a question for those bodies, not one this article can settle.

The surcharge change is part of a longer timetable. On 30 October 2026, card networks and large acquirers began publishing card fee information. By 30 January 2027, large acquirers are due to publish the pass-through of interchange cuts, and from 1 April 2027 all acquirers must provide more detailed merchant statements, while interchange caps will apply to foreign-issued cards.

The RBA is also setting its next priorities. Governor Michele Bullock told the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 28 October 2026 that payments regulatory priorities are due by the end of 2026, with consultation on prioritised issues by mid-2027. Connolly put it this way: "The plan is by the end of this year to have publicised what the areas of priority are". Whether any of those priorities touch on other fees has not been stated, and readers should not assume that the scope will change.

The broader cost-of-living backdrop gives these details extra weight. Monthly headline CPI Inflation was 4.3% over the year to September 2026, and on 3 November the RBA's Monetary Policy Board lifted the cash rate target to 4.85%. Payments rules and interest rates are different tools, but households feeling price pressure are likely to be paying closer attention to every line on a bill.

The bottom line

The October reform removed something specific: extra charges for paying by eftpos, Mastercard or Visa, with PayPal following and American Express and UnionPay also moving. It did not remove weekend and public holiday surcharges, booking fees or service fees, because those are not charges for the choice of payment method. Discounts for particular payment methods also remain allowed. Knowing that distinction helps shoppers judge whether an extra fee falls within the ban, and points them to the right place if something seems wrong.