Australia card surcharge ban to take effect 1 October

Starting 1 October, a ban on card surcharges will take effect, preventing businesses from passing card processing fees directly to customers. While the surcharge itself is prohibited, the underlying costs charged by banks and terminal providers remain.

To mitigate these costs, the Reserve Bank is lowering interchange fee caps, specifically reducing the cap on consumer credit cards from 0.8% to 0.3%. However, the extent of these savings depends on whether banks and terminal providers pass the reductions on to merchants.

Major card networks, including Eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, and American Express, have confirmed no-surcharge rules. Additionally, online booking platform HotDoc will replace its percentage-based processing fee with a flat $2.45 platform fee for enabled appointment types. The Reserve Bank noted that this change specifically targets fees triggered by card payments, rather than general booking or service fees.