The Reserve Bank of Australia has introduced reforms that will remove surcharges on debit and credit cards from the 1st October 2026, on card networks including eftpos, Mastercard and Visa.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-31/asx-markets-business-live-news-march-30-2026/106510434#live-blog-post-278505
31 Comments
Good – about time. Long overdue
Suddenly all prices increase by 1%
Finally, Australia to be brought in line with the rest of the world!
Surcharges were banned in the UK and Europe almost 10 years ago!
Can’t wait to see zero cafes remove their somewhat arbitrary card fees
Good… Now to kill off “service”… “holiday” and “sunday” surcharges.
If they want a different menu on those days they can give people a different menu.
FINALLY!!!!
This is only banks & card networks though isn’t it?
Payment Processors/Service Providers such as Square or Stripe will still charge their surcharges?
We need a system like what Brazil’s reserve bank did with Pix.
How about card processing fees for online payments? Is that part of it?
My mum is going to love this news. “No son, it’s fucken robbery. They shouldn’t be allowed to do it!”
Can we get a chargeback?
Explanation from RBA here.
[https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2026/mr-26-10.html](https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2026/mr-26-10.html)
This surcharge ban reportedly does not affect Amex.
Good. Long overdue.
What about 3rd party rental apps that have surcharge or is it direct relationship with app itself not the card? For example paying by card through rental app is $11.03. Just don’t understand how they sleep at night charging that amount. Paying my rent through Direct Debit I get slapped with $1.94 fee through the app.
Aw hell yes. Look, even if the final price is going to increase because of this, it’s a lot more fair and a lot less annoying because you will actually be aware of what the real price is.
Honestly this is a really good change. Glad they have added this
Finally some good news but yes I also reckon things will just go up by a dollar etc.
Yeah and Westpac put my annual fee for my credit card from $49 a year to $7 a month
Nice! About frickin time.
Hooray!
Hooray for the consumer and for small businesses. The little guy should not be the ones to be slugged with all the fees but inexorably we always are because we do not have the resources to offer the bird as the alternate option.
Fees will increase somewhere else. There is no way banks will loose money.
Annual.
Card processing.
Late.
Sign up.
Transfer.
Let’s not forget that it was the RBA who approved the card surcharges in the first place, **against** the advice from Visa, Mastercard, etc. who (correctly) predicted the charge would be passed on to the consumer, instead of driving competition between the merchants (shops).
Greatest news all year!
The reserve bank specifically allowed surcharges just a few years back. It was banned up until then.
So this is an admission they got it wrong…
Fuck yes.
Before people start saying “but you’ll still pay for it through higher prices”, yes that’s the point.
Put it all in your price. When I pay, I’m happy to compensate you for all of your businesses costs in providing me with your product and service. Raw goods, cost of procuring and delivering, staff, electricity, payment method and your margin. You’re not charging me extra for electricity or rent, why are you charging me extra to pay via card?
Put it all in your price and be done with it.
Fucking finally.
Why will it take 6 months to reprogram eftpos machines?
What other surcharges are the airlines going to invent now that they can’t charge this?
holy shit! thank you, reserve bank, at last
the most fucked up part of credit card fee is that it’s a fixed % of purchase price
if i buy a $5 item or a $5k item, the cost of electronic transfer is not suddenly 1000x more for the electrons involved – although i guess 3 more zeroes are a few electrons worth
next, immediate transfer between financial institutions rather than the curious delay of available funds despite electrons travelling at the speed of light – why is b-pay so insanely tardy? – oh, right, there’s no additional charge to leverage from the transaction
Very glad to hear this. I hate that you don’t know what the surcharge will be until you see it on the eftpos terminal. We had a tradie over last year for repairs and stuff, mum goes to use the $1000 limit credit card to pay. Declines because the bill is $1006 or something thanks to a goddamn surcharge. The price should be $1006 up front.