Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[transpactraveller]

How do you plan on saving a fortune if hotels simply raise their price by the amount of the surcharge and incorporate it into the price?

Because it will be easier to compare prices of hotels. At the moment you can have 1 hotel that looks like it's cheaper because they advertise a lower rate but have a hidden higher surcharge.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It will also mean VA now refunds the full price for refunds either under the fare rules or where you’re entitled under ACL.

QF does it automatically, but VA just hangs on to them.

 

[Berlin]

How do you plan on saving a fortune if hotels simply raise their price by the amount of the surcharge and incorporate it into the price?

Because they WON'T. They don't "have to incorporate surcharges" into their prices anywhere else in the world. And if some try, then competition will sort this out over time. It's rather the opposite, I bet the Hiltons and Marriotts of the world had a line in their global P&L statements saying "Rip off fees for gullible Aussies and Kiwis only" which they now get to lose. That's it.

Again, because it seems to get constantly forgotten in this thread, these fees are non-existing anywhere outside of AU/NZ and prices are not exactly lower here as a result.

 

[transpactraveller]

I think what's often forgotten is that prior to widespread surcharging, most merchants had already included the costs of card fees in their prices. When they moved to a surcharge model and split these costs out separately they didn't reduce the base price by that same amount, so most have been double dipping for years.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Because they WON'T. They don't "have to incorporate surcharges" into their prices anywhere else in the world. And if some try, then competition will sort this out over time. It's rather the opposite, I bet the Hiltons and Marriotts of the world had a line in their global P&L statements saying "Rip off fees for gullible Aussies and Kiwis only" which they now get to lose. That's it.

Again, because it seems to get constantly forgotten in this thread, these fees are non-existing anywhere outside of AU/NZ and prices are not exactly lower here as a result.

Doesn’t the USA also have them? Trump wants to ban them (swipe fees)

 

[SeaWolf]

Doesn’t the USA also have them? Trump wants to ban them (swipe fees)

As with a lot of things in the USA, it depends on which state you're in.

https://allaypay.com/blog/processing/credit-card-surcharge-laws-by-state/

 

[levelnine]

Because they WON'T. They don't "have to incorporate surcharges" into their prices anywhere else in the world. And if some try, then competition will sort this out over time. It's rather the opposite, I bet the Hiltons and Marriotts of the world had a line in their global P&L statements saying "Rip off fees for gullible Aussies and Kiwis only" which they now get to lose. That's it.

Again, because it seems to get constantly forgotten in this thread, these fees are non-existing anywhere outside of AU/NZ and prices are not exactly lower here as a result.

Have a read of the literature on sellers' inflation. In short, corporations use events that affect everyone (external 'shocks' in the literature) to reset their profit margins at the expense of customers.

Far from Hilton and Marriott executives saying they've lost a revenue stream, the literature points in the exact opposite direction. Corporate executives express 'optimism regarding their ability to turn an economy-wide cost shock into an opportunity to raise prices and protect or even increase profits.'

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Well today got notice that the kids canteen ordering system will increase the order fee from 1 October - so everyone gets an increase regardless whether funding was using a card or one of their fee-free options. This is after another order fee increase in the past 12 months!

Apparently this ordering system is owned by a Big 4 (part owned by a couple of large) bank(s) and has coverage of 1 million kids. Sure likely they will profit from this 'one-off' change.

Edit: for a bit more googled accuracy

 

[dajop]

I wonder if there’ll be across the board increases or in a business with lots of individually priced products you’ll get some adjusted and not others.

Noticed a lot of hospitality venues have adopted round dollar pricing. So if you have five menu items worth around the $30 mark and want to add 1.5% do you put the 2 most popular items up by a $1 and keep the other 3 the same or do you put all up by a $1 (so a 3% increase)?

 

[Berlin]

As with a lot of things in the USA, it depends on which state you're in.

https://allaypay.com/blog/processing/credit-card-surcharge-laws-by-state/

In practice, it’s really rare if not entirely unusual to see. Sure, there is “paying staff a decent wage surcharge” in California (which I find ridiculous) but really, a credit card surcharge is very rare in most places. Again- competition tends to sort nonsense like this out over time.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In practice, it’s really rare if not entirely unusual to see. Sure, there is “paying staff a decent wage surcharge” in California (which I find ridiculous) but really, a credit card surcharge is very rare in most places. Again- competition tends to sort nonsense like this out over time.

The US president and Ms Google both suggest the abolition of swipe fees in the US could save a family up to $1000 a year. Maybe those charges are not disclosed? Or maybe they’re inbuilt and they expect those to come off if the fees were banned?