From 1 April 2027, interchange caps will apply to foreign-issued cards used in Australia, extending the Reserve Bank's cost reforms to the cards that visitors carry in their wallets.

When an international visitor pays for a hotel room, a ferry ticket or a meal with a card issued overseas, the Australian Business still has to pay to accept that payment. Until now, the RBA's interchange caps have been focused on domestic cards. That is set to change on 1 April 2027, one of the final dated steps in the timetable flowing from the RBA's review of retail payments regulation.

The date and what it covers

According to the RBA's frequently asked questions on the conclusions of that review, 1 April 2027 brings two changes:

  • interchange caps will apply to foreign-issued cards
  • all acquirers must provide more detailed merchant statements.

Interchange is a fee paid on each card transaction from the merchant's side of the payment to the card issuer. It forms part of the overall cost a business pays its acquirer, the financial institution that processes its card payments. A cap limits how high that fee can go.

Domestic cards came first. Lower domestic interchange caps took effect from 1 October 2026, the same day surcharges were removed on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments. Extending caps to foreign-issued cards brings a second category of transactions inside the framework.

This article does not report the specific level of the foreign-card caps. What is confirmed is the date on which they begin.

Why visitors' cards matter to merchants

For many Australian businesses, particularly those in tourist areas, cards issued overseas are a routine part of trade. Since 1 October 2026, those businesses have no longer been able to add a Surcharge for eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments, and PayPal followed with its own removal of surcharges from 5 October. American Express and UnionPay are also removing surcharges, although they are not formally regulated by the RBA.

That leaves merchants absorbing the cost of card acceptance into their pricing. The RBA's broader goal, in the words of its Head of Payments Policy, Ellis Connolly, at the Australian Finance Industry Association on 20 October 2026, is clear: "we're really trying to put downward pressure on merchants' payment costs".

Seen through that lens, extending caps to foreign-issued cards addresses a gap. A business that cannot surcharge and that takes a meaningful share of payments on overseas cards would otherwise have part of its card costs outside the reach of the reform. From April, those payments are also brought within the capped framework.

A staged rollout, not a single switch

The foreign-card step is the last of several dated milestones. The sequence, as set out in the RBA FAQ, runs:

  • 1 October 2026: surcharges removed on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa; lower domestic interchange caps begin.
  • 5 October 2026: PayPal surcharge removal.
  • 30 October 2026: card networks and large acquirers begin publishing card fee information.
  • 30 January 2027: large acquirers publish the pass-through of interchange cuts.
  • 1 April 2027: more detailed merchant statements from all acquirers; interchange caps apply to foreign-issued cards.

Pairing the foreign-card caps with more detailed statements is useful for merchants. Detailed statements should make it easier to see what is being charged on different kinds of transactions, including any change once the foreign-card caps begin. Whether acquirers pass on the effect of the new caps will, as with the domestic changes, be a commercial matter, which is why transparency is built into the package.

What it does and doesn't mean for travellers

For tourists themselves, the change is mainly a back-office one. Interchange is paid between institutions on the merchant and issuer sides of the transaction, rather than shown to the cardholder at the till. The FAQ does not suggest any new fee or charge for visitors as a result of the change.

What visitors will notice is the earlier reform: Australian businesses are no longer able to add a surcharge for paying with eftpos, Mastercard or Visa. Other kinds of charges sit outside the ban. The RBA's FAQ states that weekend and public holiday surcharges, booking fees and service fees are not covered, and that discounts for particular payment methods are still allowed.

Any fees that a traveller's own bank applies to overseas spending are a separate matter, set by the card issuer in the traveller's home country, and are not part of the RBA reform described here.

The foreign-card step lands as the RBA sets its next payments agenda. 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 said: "The plan is by the end of this year to have publicised what the areas of priority are". He also noted the RBA had received about 70 submissions to its review.

The structure of payments is moving quickly. Connolly said cards account for 75% of payments, based on a consumer survey the RBA has run every three years since 2008, and that nearly 50% of card payments now go through mobile wallets. Those trends apply to locals and visitors alike.

Businesses unsure of how the April changes will affect their own costs can consider speaking with their acquirer or a licensed adviser.

The bottom line

The 1 April 2027 milestone extends interchange caps to foreign-issued cards and requires all acquirers to provide more detailed merchant statements. For businesses that serve international visitors, it brings an important slice of card payments within the RBA's cost framework at a time when surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa is no longer an option. For travellers, little changes at the counter beyond the surcharge removal that began in October. The real test, as with the domestic caps, will be whether lower costs at the scheme level show up in what merchants pay, something the new statements should make easier to judge.