Australia's Card Surcharge Ban: What Changes From 1 October 2026

The RBA's final decision, published in its Conclusions Paper on 31 March 2026, removes surcharging on the three card networks it regulates. The other big networks have said they'll do the same. Here's who stops when, according to the RBA's FAQs:

It applies in person, online, over the phone and on invoices: anywhere you'd add a fee because the customer pays by card. For context, the RBA says about 16% of Australian merchants surcharged in 2024/25, and surcharges cost consumers about $1.8 billion a year. Until now, the main limit was the ACCC's power (since 2016) to act against surcharges above a business's cost of accepting cards.

"Surcharge ban" is what everyone calls it, but no statute bans surcharges. Here's what actually happened:

1. The RBA removed its own rule. For years the RBA's rules stopped card networks from banning surcharges. From 1 October 2026 it lifts that prohibition for eftpos, Mastercard and Visa.
2. The networks banned surcharges. eftpos, Mastercard and Visa each decided to introduce "no-surcharge" rules from the same date. American Express, UnionPay and PayPal, which the RBA doesn't regulate in the same way, chose to follow.
3. The networks enforce it. The ACCC's card surcharge guidance says the card networks or payment service providers are responsible for enforcing these rules, "not the ACCC". In practice that means your merchant facility agreement: your provider passes the network rules on to you. The RBA says any exemption is up to each network, not the RBA.

There's a backstop. The RBA's Conclusions Paper says that if surcharging continues, it could recommend that the Government legislate a ban. That hasn't happened as of September 2026.

No card surcharges, but you still have choices. The ACCC's guidance (checked 28 September 2026) covers four:

• Raise your prices. You can build the cost of accepting cards into your prices. Just don't mislead customers about why prices went up, for example by calling a price rise a "government charge" when it isn't.
• Offer a discount for another payment method. The RBA and the ACCC both say discounts are still allowed, such as a discount for paying with cash or PayID. The catch: the price you display must be the full price, and the discount comes off it. A "discount" that only shows up as a higher price when a card comes out is a surcharge.
• Don't relabel the surcharge. The ACCC warns that a business that removes its card surcharge but adds a new fee to cover the same cost "may be engaging in misleading conduct". Calling it a "processing fee", "admin fee" or "service fee" doesn't change what it is.
• Weekend and public-holiday surcharges are separate. The ACCC says hospitality weekend and public-holiday surcharges aren't affected. The RBA puts it this way: the changes "only apply to surcharges added because a customer pays by card", not to weekend or public-holiday surcharges, booking fees or service fees. They just can't be a card fee in disguise.

The ACCC says to remove surcharge notices "from menus, signage, websites and apps" and make sure surcharging "is disabled on payment terminals". Work through every place a card fee can appear:

• ✓Terminals. Turn off the surcharge setting on every terminal, including spares and mobile units. If you're not sure how, ask your provider.
• ✓Signage and menus. Take down counter signs, door stickers and menu lines that mention a card fee. Reprint menus if the fee is printed on them.
• ✓Website checkout. Remove any "card fee" or "payment processing fee" line from your cart and checkout, and the plugin or rule that adds it.
• ✓Apps and online ordering. Check booking, delivery and ordering apps you control for a card fee setting.
• ✓Invoices and payment links. Update invoice templates, terms and pay-by-link pages that add a percentage for card payments.
• ✓Recurring billing. Remove surcharges from subscriptions, memberships and direct card billing before the next billing run after 1 October.
• ✓Staff scripts. Tell staff what to say when a customer asks, and to stop quoting "plus card fee" on the phone.
• ✓Prices. If you're raising prices or adding a payment-method discount, set the new prices now and display the full price.

The same RBA decision cuts interchange from 1 October 2026. Interchange is the fee your acquirer (the bank or company that processes your card sales) pays the customer's card issuer on each sale. It's the biggest part of what you pay.

Whether those cuts reach you depends on your pricing plan:

• Single rate (blended): one percentage for every card. Your provider decides whether to lower it. CommBank, for example, announced that its in-store single rate falls from 1.1% to 0.99% from 1 October 2026.
• Unblended: you pay the actual interchange plus a margin, which the RBA says is also called "interchange plus". Interchange cuts show up on your statement automatically. See how interchange-plus (unblended) pricing works.

The RBA's own data makes the case: a small merchant on a single-rate plan pays 1.4% of sales on average, against 0.9% on an unblended plan. Only 19% of small merchants are on unblended plans. Now that you can't pass the cost to customers, that gap is yours. Our guide to merchant fees in Australia from October 2026 explains how to read your statement and what to question.

START sets up Australian merchant accounts (merchant facilities) through an Australian acquiring partner, in AUD and settling to your Australian bank account. Tell us what you pay now and we'll tell you what your merchant facility should cost once the fee is yours.

American Express isn't regulated by the RBA the way eftpos, Mastercard and Visa are. The ACCC notes Amex is removing surcharging from 1 October 2026 anyway, so treat Amex like every other card: no surcharge.

The bigger questions sit in the RBA's 2026 Review of Payments System Regulation, which published issues papers in June 2026 and has no outcome yet. It covers:

• Three-party card networks such as American Express
• Buy now, pay later
• Mobile wallets
• Least-cost routing for online and wallet payments (sending dual-network debit through the cheaper network)

And if businesses keep surcharging, the RBA has said it could recommend that the Government make the ban law. We'll update this page when either happens.

If you also take payments from U.S. customers on a U.S. merchant account, U.S. surcharge rules are different: credit card surcharges are allowed there within network caps and state laws. See how Australian businesses take payments from U.S. customers, and our U.S. surcharge and cash discount rules before you add a fee on that account.