From 1 October 2026 you can't add a card surcharge to a customer's bill. Here's what changes, what to check across your terminal, website and invoices, and how to handle the cost without landing in trouble.
If you've ever added a "card surcharge" line to a customer's bill, you need to stop before 1 October 2026. That's the date the Reserve Bank of Australia's card surcharge ban kicks in, and it applies to eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and now American Express too.
The cost of accepting card payments isn't disappearing. You just won't be able to itemise it as a separate charge anymore. That difference matters, and it changes what you need to do in the next few weeks.
What's changing on 1 October
From 1 October 2026, you can't add a surcharge to a customer's bill because they paid by card. The RBA's Conclusions Paper confirms eftpos, Mastercard and Visa are banned from allowing it under their scheme rules. Amex isn't regulated by the RBA, but it's agreed to drop surcharging on the same date.
Only around 16 per cent of Australian businesses currently surcharge. If you're in the other 84 per cent, this change barely touches your day to day. If you do surcharge, this is the one you can't afford to miss.
On the same day, wholesale interchange fees drop too. Domestic consumer credit interchange falls from 0.80 per cent to 0.30 per cent. Debit interchange falls from 0.20 per cent (or 10 cents) to 0.16 per cent (or 8 cents).
Business and commercial credit cards stay at 0.80 per cent, so don't expect relief there.
Whether that saving lands in your merchant account depends on your provider passing it on. Square, Tyro and Stripe have all confirmed they're switching off surcharging automatically on 1 October, so at least that part isn't on you to configure.
Why the card surcharge ban is happening
The RBA's logic is straightforward. Surcharges have crept well past what card acceptance genuinely costs many merchants. The RBA estimates the ban and fee cuts together save consumers and businesses somewhere between $1.8 and $2.4 billion a year. Consumers save around $60 a cardholder annually. Merchants collectively save close to $910 million a year in lower interchange costs.
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Small businesses were flagged as the biggest winners here, because they typically pay fees closest to the old caps. Whether you feel that benefit depends entirely on whether your bank or provider passes the saving through, which is worth checking rather than assuming.
What you need to do before 1 October
- →Check every payment point you own. Terminal, POS, online checkout, payment links, invoicing software, booking systems. Surcharge settings hide in places you'd forget, particularly accounting software.
- →Call your payment provider. Confirm whether they're switching surcharging off automatically or whether you need to do it yourself. Get it in writing.
- →Strip surcharge wording everywhere customers see it. Menus, signage, your website, booking confirmations, quotes and invoices. If it says "card surcharge applies" anywhere, it needs to go.
- →Check invoices you've already sent. If a customer pays after 1 October on an invoice raised in September, the surcharge may not be collectable. The RBA has confirmed this, even if it was disclosed at the time.
- →Decide how you'll handle the cost. You can absorb it, or build it into your prices. Either is fine. What you can't do is disguise a banned surcharge as a new "service fee" or "handling fee." The ACCC has already flagged that as misleading conduct.
The trap worth knowing about
If you're planning to raise prices to cover the lost surcharge, be honest about why. The ACCC's own example is a hairdresser lifting a $60 cut to $65. If wages and rent are also going up, don't tell customers the increase is purely down to the surcharge ban. That's the kind of claim that gets picked up as misleading. Penalties for misleading pricing conduct now run into the tens of millions for a business, not thousands.
This isn't tax or legal advice, and every business's numbers will look different. If you're unsure how this affects your pricing or invoicing, talk to your bookkeeper or accountant before you make changes.
What this doesn't cover
This reform is specifically about eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and Amex surcharges. It doesn't touch weekend or public holiday surcharges, genuine booking or delivery fees, or terminal rental costs. These just need to be properly disclosed and unrelated to the card payment itself. BNPL providers, PayPal and mobile wallets sit outside this round of changes entirely. The RBA has flagged a separate review of those for later in 2026.
What to do this week
Pull up your last merchant statement and work out what you currently pay to accept cards. Then check whether you currently surcharge, anywhere. If you do, you've got a few weeks to update your systems, your signage and your pricing before the switch flips on 1 October.
Getting your pricing and invoicing sorted is between you, your bookkeeper and your payment provider.