Card Payment Surcharges Banned in Australia from 2026

[Berlin]

These little shops- well, there’s plenty of competition out there and I personally just drink my Nespresso at home. But even if I had to pay a few cents more- meh.

But the savings at places like my gym or ALDI, they will be huge. Not to mention my personal bug bears, hotels and airline tickets. Very happy to see those pesky surcharges finally gone and Australia just doing what everyone else has always been doing.

I keep repeating myself, yes, but that’s because the discussion on here always moved back to “Whinge, my local coffee shop is prices, this is an absolute catastrophe” without acknowledging that no, this is no catastrophe, just what’s been normal everywhere else on this globe

 

[Seat0B]

You should inform the business why you are leaving.

Yes I will do that. Not sure they will care, but at least they will have the data point.

 

[Pushka]

Trying to explain all this use of ATO to pay advance and current taxes to SO. May hay while the sun shines as it were. Understood as well as the cinema tickets during dsc offers.

 

[HMcM]

I reckon a lot of this is just the usual aversion to change. It'll be a few weeks of wailing about how it's awful and then everyone will just move on and forget about what the fuss was all about.

Unless you play the credit card game, then you will continue to notice the massive reduction in points earning capacity with most suppliers, notice the drastically higher fees and the reduced perks. That's not changing any time soon.

 

[drron]

So lots complaining of small businesses charging more. Is anyone going to the ACCC or Treasurer about the ATO stopping the us of CCs from 30/11.

 

[MELso]

So lots complaining of small businesses charging more. Is anyone going to the ACCC or Treasurer about the ATO stopping the us of CCs from 30/11.

Why on earth should other taxpayers subsidise small business owners who want a few Qantas points when paying their tax?

 

[serfty]

Unless you play the credit card game, then you will continue to notice the massive reduction in points earning capacity with most suppliers, notice the drastically higher fees and the reduced perks. That's not changing any time soon.

Of course, let us go back to the first post of this thread ..

Live Payments, which leases payment terminals to small businesses, is incentivizing those businesses to cop a very high 2.6% processing fee in exchange for earning 1 Qantas Point per $1 processed. That fee can be passed on in full to customers under current regulations, which means the business can earn Qantas Points for free, essentially - and some are doing just that.
...

Surcharging was getting out of hand.

 

[Buzzard]

But the savings at places like my gym or ALDI, they will be huge.

Who's to say that places like Aldi won't put their prices up by even just a few cents on each item? I don't know the cost of everything at Aldi so I won't know if I end up paying more even if paying cash.
IMHO this whole thing is just a ship fight.

 

[dajop]

Who's to say that places like Aldi won't put their prices up by even just a few cents on each item? I don't know the cost of everything at Aldi so I won't know if I end up paying more even if paying cash.
IMHO this whole thing is just a ship fight.

If interchange fees cap has reduced from 0.8% to 0.3% as has been suggested up thread, then Aldi, who was charging ~0.5% for Visa/MC shouldn't have a need to up their prices. Not that most people would notice a price increase. In any event an increase in logistics costs with the high diesel price probably is contributing to price pressure too.