From 1 October 2026, Australian businesses will generally no longer be able to add a surcharge when customers pay using an eftpos, Visa, Mastercard or American Express card.
Although commonly described as a “credit card surcharge ban”, the change is much broader. It covers most debit and prepaid card payments as well as credit cards.
For businesses, the important point is that card-processing costs are not disappearing. What is changing is how those costs can be recovered. Businesses that currently pass them directly to customers must review their pricing, payment systems and customer communications before the new rules take effect.
What is changing?
The Reserve Bank of Australia has changed its standards to allow card networks to introduce “no-surcharge” rules. Eftpos, Visa and Mastercard have confirmed that their rules will begin on 1 October 2026. American Express has also decided to remove surcharging from the same date.
In practical terms, businesses that accept these cards will generally be unable to charge customers an additional fee because they chose to pay by card.
The rules will cover:
- Eftpos debit and prepaid cards
- Visa debit, prepaid and credit cards
- Mastercard debit, prepaid and credit cards
- American Express credit cards.
They will generally apply to Australian and internationally issued cards.
UnionPay has also announced that it will remove surcharging from 1 October, while PayPal’s no-surcharge rule is scheduled to begin on 5 October 2026.
The rules before and after 1 October
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Until 30 September 2026 |
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Businesses may apply surcharges to eligible card payments. |
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For eftpos, Visa and Mastercard payments, a surcharge must not exceed the business’s actual cost of accepting that payment type. |
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If the same surcharge applies to several card types, it cannot exceed the lowest applicable cost of acceptance. |
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If customers have no way to pay without a surcharge, the minimum surcharge must be included in the displayed price. |
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Calling a card surcharge a “service fee” or “handling fee” does not avoid the existing rules. |
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From 1 October 2026 |
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Businesses generally cannot surcharge eftpos, Visa, Mastercard or American Express payments. |
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The new rules generally cover debit, prepaid and credit cards. |
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Card-processing costs may be reflected in the business’s ordinary prices, but cannot be added as a separate card fee. |
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Businesses may offer clearly disclosed discounts for payment methods such as cash or PayID. |
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Genuine booking, delivery, service, weekend and public-holiday charges can continue, provided they are not card surcharges under another name. |
Businesses that continue to surcharge before 1 October must comply with the current rules until the change takes effect.
The processing cost has not disappeared
Businesses will continue to pay merchant and payment-processing fees after 1 October. However, those costs will generally need to be treated like other operating expenses and incorporated into the overall price of the goods or services being sold.
A business may therefore decide to increase its ordinary prices to account for payment costs. Any pricing changes must be communicated accurately and must not mislead customers.
For example, a business should not attribute an entire price increase to the removal of card surcharges if the increase also reflects higher wages, rent, energy or other operating costs.
The surcharge changes are being introduced alongside reductions to certain interchange-fee caps and measures intended to make merchant payment costs more transparent. However, businesses should not assume their own processing fees will automatically fall by a particular amount. It is worth reviewing existing arrangements and comparing payment providers or plans.
Can businesses introduce another fee instead?
The change applies specifically to fees charged because a customer pays by card.
Businesses may still charge genuine fees such as booking, delivery or service fees, and hospitality businesses may continue to apply properly disclosed weekend and public-holiday surcharges.
However, a card surcharge cannot simply be renamed. A “service fee”, “processing fee” or “handling fee” that only appears when a customer selects a particular card is likely to be treated as a card payment surcharge. Attempting to disguise the fee may also raise concerns under the Australian Consumer Law.
Can businesses offer a discount for cash or another payment method?
Yes. Businesses may continue to encourage customers to use a preferred payment method by offering a discount, including for cash or PayID.
The discount must be clearly disclosed before the customer orders or pays. The business must also display the full price payable by customers who do not receive the discount. It should not display only the discounted price or make it more prominent than the full price.
What businesses should do now
Businesses that currently apply card surcharges should complete the following steps before 1 October:
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Identify every place a surcharge is applied.
Check payment terminals, point-of-sale systems, websites, online checkouts, booking platforms, invoicing software, payment links and recurring payment arrangements.
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Contact the payment service provider.
Confirm whether surcharging will be disabled automatically and whether the business needs to change any terminal, software or account settings.
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Review payment costs and pricing.
Understand current processing costs and decide whether they will be absorbed, reflected in ordinary prices or addressed by moving to a more suitable payment plan or provider.
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Update customer-facing information.
Remove references to card surcharges from menus, signs, websites, apps, quotations, invoices, contracts, price lists and other material.
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Check the total price displayed.
Ensure advertised prices accurately show what customers will pay and that any remaining fees or payment-method discounts are displayed correctly.
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Brief employees.
Customer-facing staff should understand the change and be able to explain why card surcharges no longer apply.
Details that may be easily overlooked
The relevant date will generally be the date the card payment is made – not necessarily the date an invoice was issued. If an invoice is issued before 1 October but paid by card on or after that date, the business may no longer be able to apply the surcharge. Businesses should confirm the treatment of existing invoices with their payment provider.
Business-to-business card payments are not automatically exempt. The same is true for not-for-profit organisations, unless an exemption is provided by the relevant network rules or by law.
Taxi payment surcharges are treated separately and remain subject to state and territory regulation.
Businesses operating under regulated pricing arrangements should also review any sector-specific requirements and seek advice if their prices cannot readily be adjusted.
A change to pricing – not the end of payment costs
The removal of card surcharges is intended to give customers greater certainty about the price they will pay. For businesses, however, it represents a shift from separately passing on a transaction cost to managing that cost within the broader pricing model.
Before 1 October, every business that currently surcharges should be able to answer one simple question:
Can a customer pay by card without an additional card-related fee appearing anywhere in the transaction?
If the answer is no, it is time to speak with the payment provider, update the relevant systems and review how prices are presented.
Further information is available from the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman.
This article provides general information and does not constitute tax, legal or financial advice. Businesses should check the rules that apply to their arrangements with their payment service provider.