Card surcharges are changing from 1 October 2026 — what businesses need to know

A card surcharge is an additional amount charged because a customer chooses to pay using a particular card.

If an item is advertised for $100 and the business adds a 1% card surcharge, the customer pays $101 when paying with the relevant card.

It is separate from the price of the good or service. It exists to recover the cost the business pays to accept that payment.

Nothing changes before 1 October 2026. Under the current framework, a card surcharge must not exceed the business's cost of accepting that payment type, and the ACCC has enforcement powers over excessive surcharging.

Businesses should not change or remove their surcharge arrangements simply because of the future rule. Any change made now still has to comply with the current law and with your payment provider's terms.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has removed its prohibition on no-surcharge rules for the designated card networks — eftpos, Mastercard and Visa — with effect from 1 October 2026. That allows those networks to prohibit surcharging on credit, debit and prepaid card payments made on their networks.

American Express has separately announced that it will remove surcharging from 1 October 2026. American Express is not a designated network regulated by the RBA in the same way, so its position is a network decision rather than a regulated outcome.

The RBA also notes that card-network rules are business decisions and may be subject to change, and that merchants deal with their acquirer or payment service provider rather than the RBA directly.

Removing the surcharge does not mean the business stops paying to accept card payments.

The RBA is explicit that businesses will continue to incur card-acceptance costs, and that those costs may be reflected in overall pricing rather than as a separate card surcharge.

That is the commercial issue. If a business currently collects, say, $20,000 a year in card surcharges and that income stops, the effect on margin is better understood before October than discovered in November. The $20,000 is illustrative — the real figure will be specific to the business.

Assume a business processes $1.5 million a year through card payments and its effective card-acceptance cost averages 1%.

That equates to roughly $15,000 a year in payment costs.

If the business currently passes most of that cost on through a surcharge, removing the surcharge changes who ultimately bears it. The owner may consider absorbing it, adjusting overall pricing, negotiating a better merchant arrangement, changing payment options, or some combination.

There is no single right answer. Pricing depends on margins, transaction mix, average transaction size, competition, customer behaviour and how many customers actually pay by card. The right response depends on the business. The first step is knowing what the current card-acceptance cost actually is.

Illustrative example only. Actual merchant costs vary by provider, card type, transaction mix and payment arrangement.

Six or seven practical checks will cover most businesses.

Review recent merchant statements and calculate what the business actually pays to accept cards. If you use more than one payment provider or platform, include all of them.

If you pass those fees on, work out roughly how much surcharge income you collect each year. That is the gap that may appear once surcharging stops.

Understand the plan you are on, compare it, and talk to your provider. The RBA specifically notes that businesses may wish to review whether they are on the best payment plan and shop around.

If the business currently relies on surcharges to recover card costs, those costs need to sit somewhere in the economics of the business. That does not automatically mean increasing every price. Look at annual card costs, current margin, transaction mix, existing surcharge recovery and how much pricing flexibility you actually have before deciding.

Speak with your payment provider, POS provider or merchant acquirer where relevant. Confirm whether surcharge functionality will change automatically, whether anything needs to be reconfigured, and when those changes take effect.

If overall pricing changes, customer-facing pricing needs to be consistent. Where relevant, that can include menus, websites, quotes, price lists, booking systems, POS systems and signage.

Anyone taking payments should understand what customers will be charged from 1 October. That matters most in hospitality, retail, accommodation, venues and any business taking frequent card payments at a counter.

The changes apply to surcharges added because a customer pays by card. The RBA expressly distinguishes those from weekend surcharges, public holiday surcharges, booking fees and service fees, which are not removed by these changes. Those charges remain subject to their own pricing and consumer-law requirements.

The changes also do not mean every payment-related fee disappears. The RBA's decision concerns the designated card networks; non-card payment methods and platforms are not regulated in the same way. If your business uses other payment methods, check the relevant provider terms and current guidance separately.

Taxi businesses may be subject to separate state or territory rules and should check the requirements that apply to them.

The RBA notes that where a card payment is actually made on or after 1 October 2026, surcharging may no longer be available even if the invoice was issued earlier. If you have payment terms that straddle the date, check the position with your payment provider.

The same package of reforms reduces caps on certain interchange fees. Most of the domestic interchange changes are scheduled for 1 October 2026, with some foreign-card and transparency measures commencing later, including from 1 April 2027.

That does not mean every business's merchant fee will fall by a particular amount. What your provider actually charges you is the number that matters, so review your own statements rather than assuming a saving.

The change matters most directly to businesses that currently surcharge card payments. Even businesses that don't surcharge may find the new fee-transparency measures useful when reviewing merchant costs.

If your business currently charges customers a card surcharge, don't wait until the end of September to work out what the change means.

Start with three numbers: how much you process through cards, what accepting those payments currently costs, and how much of that cost you currently recover through surcharges.

Once you know those numbers, you can make a sensible decision about pricing, payment providers and what needs to change before 1 October.

If you'd like help understanding what the change could mean for your margins or pricing, speak with the Wakefield Pacific team. You can also read how we approach pricing and fees and business advisory.