Card Payment Surcharges Banned in Australia from 2026

[CaptJCool]

Seeing more and more of these images being posted everywhere.

As I predicted earlier in this thread, consistent with economic theory, businesses are using this systemwide 'shock' to reset their margins.

It is way easier to justify a price increase when everyone else is also increasing their prices, and the end of surcharging gave everyone a perfect excuse to increase their prices.

View attachment 523702

Interesting that places who own the building freehold and have zero finance don’t drop their coffee prices

 

[dairyfloss]

I'm happy I can pay my council rates and utilities with my card now surcharge free!

Oh, yes - that's at least one merchant that can't get away with raising the price... or at least not any more than usual! Time to cancel some Sniip payments!

 

[Happy Dude]

In the same breath, cash will still have relevance and perhaps even moreso in this new era of no surcharges - remains to be seen.

The effects of no cash are perfectly visible in, say, Sweden.

 

[MooTime]

should be buying giftcards with 20x bonus points to pay for rates!!

 

[SeatBackForward]

but in the meantime the slightly higher prices we pay at all venues cafe, coffee blah blah is set in stone, forgotten maybe but not forgotten in our purses / satchels.

Ye of little faith, the free market will resolve everything!

 

[MelbFlyer]

The effects of no cash are perfectly visible in, say, Sweden.

Whilst it may work over in Sweden, we're a different bunch down here in Australia and if we're talking / comparing countries, we could talk about other topics such as why EV uptake there is much higher compared to here. It's an apples and oranges conversation.

 

[Happy Dude]

Oh, yes - that's at least one merchant that can't get away with raising the price... or at least not any more than usual! Time to cancel some Sniip payments!

I thought sniip etc was used to earn points where none would be earned paying direct? It was essentially a net-square outcome, ie pay sniip a surcharge or pay the utility, council etc surcharge.

But it's true with the slashing of earn rates and SUBs, coupled with increased burn rates, reduced insurance, reward availability and whatnot, I'd have thought platforms like sniip would be in less demand, not more.

 

[Happy Dude]

Whilst it may work over in Sweden, we're a different bunch down here in Australia and if we're talking / comparing countries, we could talk about other topics such as why EV uptake there is much higher compared to here. It's an apples and oranges conversation.

No it's not. I'm sure there were plenty in Sweden who also thought the sky was falling when cash was removed.

 

[dairyfloss]

I thought sniip etc was used to earn points where none would be earned paying direct? It was essentially a net-square outcome, ie pay sniip a surcharge or pay the utility, council etc surcharge.

But it's true with the slashing of earn rates and SUBs, coupled with increased burn rates, reduced insurance, reward availability and whatnot, I'd have thought platforms like sniip would be in less demand, not more.

Sniip wants $5.75 for processing my $446 council rates quarterly, on Amex, so I can earn points at 0.5 QFF points per $1 (plus the Sniip QFF points, which is just 44 of them!). I can pay the council directly now with zero additional cost to pay with AmEx (or Visa or MC)

 

[flydoc2]

How often does the banking system go down? I can't remember an instance being impacted by that.

Taking this post at face value, there are disruptions more often than one might think or hope. Barely a month goes by without media reports of a payment systems outage, albeit usually resolved within hours, affecting 1 of the big 4 banks and impacting peoples’ ability to make everyday financial transactions

 

[wxxnxs]

Shop around! I went to my local coffee place yesterday....same price (for now), no card surcharge and their loyalty program continues. Helps that there are 4 coffee shops within 50 metres of each other!

This is the right way to do. This surcharge ban really puts every shop on the same starting point, keep price unchanged will eventually win more customers. For those businesses that are trying to be sneaky increase price here and there, or even make up some doggy service fees or other surcharges will be boycotted by customers in the end.

 

[AuSammy]

From a different perspective to many small business reactions, my daughter’s and my son in law’s businesses have never had a payment surcharge and they accept payments in a bewilderingly variety of forms. They are kind of relieved now that other similar businesses in town are now being pushed to trade on the same basis - more equal competition. The advertised price should now be the price (with caveats, some will find workarounds as reported above, “platform”fees etc).

 

[SeatBackForward]

From a different perspective to many small business reactions, my daughter’s and my son in law’s businesses have never had a payment surcharge and they accept payments in a bewilderingly variety of forms. They are kind of relieved now that other similar businesses in town are now being pushed to trade on the same basis - more equal competition. The advertised price should now be the price (with caveats, some will find workarounds as reported above, “platform”fees etc).

And this is the key thing that business owners need to do. Slopping on a surcharge was always a "lazy" way of figuring out whether their pricing is competitive or not - now everyones on an equal foot.

Not the same, but one of my businesses sells products online. We switched to a payment processor that charges us a fixed monthly fee rather than a per transaction % because we did the analysis and determined that was cheaper for us in the end. That's what all business should be doing and always reviewing such things.

 

[elanshin]

Seeing more and more of these images being posted everywhere.

As I predicted earlier in this thread, consistent with economic theory, businesses are using this systemwide 'shock' to reset their margins.

It is way easier to justify a price increase when everyone else is also increasing their prices, and the end of surcharging gave everyone a perfect excuse to increase their prices.

View attachment 523702

Honestly, a lot of costs have been absorbed by businesses in the past 12months or so. Each time its small increases here and there and you go - oh maybe we'll take another hit here.

The dams broken here now and we'll see a lot of readjusting especially as business are facing potentially even bigger cost increases as fuel prices are in the up right now.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

The cafe ditching the loyalty program over this is absurd. Just adjust the price and there's literally no need to make a song and dance about it.

 

[MELso]

The cafe ditching the loyalty program over this is absurd. Just adjust the price and there's literally no need to make a song and dance about it.

It's almost like they want you to shop around for a better product at a better price point!

 

[LondonAussie]

Whilst I was happy with the proposed change, I am not at all surprised by the response of businesses in "rip-off Australia". No business seems to be recognising that their actual cost of acceptance has decreased, they are just whining about not being able surcharge. Quite frankly, it's pathetic. It's amazing that any Australian business has lasted more than a few months the way they cry about their costs!

I don’t understand what’s so difficult about just including the cost in the price displayed to the customer.

But to your point, for most businesses the cost of processing cards has just massively decreased, and they are responding by increasing prices much more than the surcharge they previously charged. It doesn’t make much sense.

 

[Seat0B]

Well my friend and I are voting with our feet and wallets.

Here is what I paid for my manicure on 7 Sep - including the cc surcharge.



And here is what I paid yesterday for the exact same manicure.



They had a big sign up in the shop advising their compliance with the surcharge ban, but basically they have hiked the prices by ~10%. There were no signs or other info about the huge price rise. So we did not find out about it until after the services were provided. I was annoyed, but my friend was incensed. She is scouting new places for our monthly nail treat. She said, even if it costs the same elsewhere, she will not go back to this shop. Such a pity as we have been customers at this locally owned small business for almost 10 years now, but they are surely taking the p1ss doing this.

 

[kpc]

Well my friend and I are voting with our feet and wallets.

Here is what I paid for my manicure on 7 Sep - including the cc surcharge.

View attachment 523724

And here is what I paid yesterday for the exact same manicure.

View attachment 523726

They had a big sign up in the shop advising their compliance with the surcharge ban, but basically they have hiked the prices by ~10%. There were no signs or other info about the huge price rise. So we did not find out about it until after the services were provided. I was annoyed, but my friend was incensed. She is scouting new places for our monthly nail treat. She said, even if it costs the same elsewhere, she will not go back to this shop. Such a pity as we have been customers at this locally owned small business for almost 10 years now, but they are surely taking the p1ss doing this.

You should inform the business why you are leaving.

 

[elanshin]

The cafe ditching the loyalty program over this is absurd. Just adjust the price and there's literally no need to make a song and dance about it.

Just goes to show that no everyone is actually business minded running small businesses. Which is honestly fair given everyone is allowed to have a go and try.

But to your point, for most businesses the cost of processing cards has just massively decreased, and they are responding by increasing prices much more than the surcharge they previously charged. It doesn’t make much sense.

Many businesses have been eating various incremental price increases in the past 12-24 months by adjusting as little as possible or not at all.

Then you see the other competitor also not doing it and causes a strange price cap bottling up situation. Right now it's the dam being burst open and everyone is adjusting things to where it realistically would've made sense.