Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[am0985]

And go where?

The Big Four will move first with a further devaluation once the interchange reduction kicks in. We'll probably see even more of them drop their international transfer partners as well.

Amex merely needs to stay one step above them.

They won't necessarily go anywhere. They don't need a similar card. After a certain point the annual fee becomes less and less worth it as does using the card for transactions. If it was this easy for them to devalue in quick succession then we would've seen them devalue a lot more a long time ago.

The other cards don't really have much in the way of international transfer partners as it is. Also the nature of the devaluation depends on whether there's a carve out for premium cards as mooted above. If there is then we might not see much of one.

Michelle Bullock sounded very defiant a few months ago on this but now suddenly has been forced to delay things.

 

[LondonAussie]

So from the UK where surcharges have been banned for a while, the UK Amex MR earn rate is 1 point per £1 spent (about 0.5 point per $1 AUD). So a lower earn rate than the AU cards, but the conversation rate is 1:1 from UK Amex points to Avios, QFF, Asia Miles, Etihad, Flying Blue, SAS, Virgin, etc. Whereas the AU Amex is a 2:1 conversion. So UK points are basically worth double AU points.

Interestingly AU Amex doesn't let you convert to QFF but UK Amex can.

The current UK signup offer is 40,000 bonus points (80,000 AU Amex points) for spending £5,000 in the first 6 months.

For the Amex Platinum Card, the UK version offers 75,000 bonus points (equivalent to 150,000 Australian Amex points, so the AU offer of 200,000 points is better). However the UK card has a slightly higher travel credit of £250 ($500) compared to $450 on the AU version, plus a £400 dining credit that’s not on the AU card. The UK’s annual fee (£650 / $1300) is also lower compared to $1450 on the AU card.

 

[am0985]

So from the UK where surcharges have been banned for a while, the UK Amex MR earn rate is 1 point per £1 spent (about 0.5 point per $1 AUD). So a lower earn rate than the AU cards, but the conversation rate is 1:1 from UK Amex points to Avios, QFF, Asia Miles, Etihad, Flying Blue, SAS, Virgin, etc. Whereas the AU Amex is a 2:1 conversion. So UK points are basically worth double AU points.

Interestingly AU Amex doesn't let you convert to QFF but UK Amex can.

The current UK signup offer is 40,000 bonus points (80,000 AU Amex points) for spending £5,000 in the first 6 months.

For the Amex Platinum Card, the UK version offers 75,000 bonus points (equivalent to 150,000 Australian Amex points, so the AU offer of 200,000 points is better). However the UK card has a slightly higher travel credit of £250 ($500) compared to $450 on the AU version, plus a £400 dining credit that’s not on the AU card. The UK’s annual fee (£650 / $1300) is also lower compared to $1450 on the AU card.

I have been investigating somehow getting the UK Amex Plat only today (as I've posted elsewhere on this site) and it's giving me an option of 95k Amex MR points (equivalent to 190k Australian MR). It says this is based on my cookies.

I still have an British address and can get a UK phone number so I'm going to investigate this further on Monday...

 

[Viridis]

Whereas the AU Amex is a 2:1 conversion

....... plus a £400 dining credit that’s not on the AU card.

Soon to be 3:1 for most transfer partners, 4:1 for Emirates

There is a A$400 dining credit on the Au Platinum card (A$200 in Aus and A$200 abroad - think that's the same logic as the UK card)

 

[Dr Ev]

I just don't understand why people are still chasing frequent flyer points in 2025.
There is a fantasy pushed on mums and dads by the banks and airlines that the average credit card spend is a gateway to premium world travel. It's not reality and it's not ethical.

I was a keen points chaser back 15-20 years ago, when points were at least triple the value they are now and easier to redeem.
Hard to comprehend now, but in 2009 I was earning uncapped 3 Krisflyer miles per dollar spent with the old Krisflyer Amex card. I could pay unlimited tax on the ATO portal and the surcharge was minimal and tax deductible.

As chasing frequent flyer points becomes less and less worthwhile, people seem more and more desperate to chase them. The credit card surcharge ban probably won't slow things down much.
These schemes are highly profitable and a borderline scam now.
Good luck to you guys, but for me It's just not worth the bother any more unless you can push serious business spend through a card, which I can't do.

As a high income earner (and probably less energetic than I used to be), I decided a few years ago to use the time I previously spent chasing reward seats to just work and earn the money to buy the J seats I want, when I want them.

 

[burmans]

I just don't understand why people are still chasing frequent flyer points in 2025.
There is a fantasy pushed on mums and dads by the banks and airlines that the average credit card spend is a gateway to premium world travel. It's not reality and it's not ethical.

I was a keen points chaser back 15-20 years ago, when points were at least triple the value they are now and easier to redeem.
Hard to comprehend now, but in 2009 I was earning uncapped 3 Krisflyer miles per dollar spent with the old Krisflyer Amex card. I could pay unlimited tax on the ATO portal and the surcharge was minimal and tax deductible.

As chasing frequent flyer points becomes less and less worthwhile, people seem more and more desperate to chase them. The credit card surcharge ban probably won't slow things down much.
These schemes are highly profitable and a borderline scam now.
Good luck to you guys, but for me It's just not worth the bother any more unless you can push serious business spend through a card, which I can't do.

As a high income earner (and probably less energetic than I used to be), I decided a few years ago to use the time I previously spent chasing reward seats to just work and earn the money to buy the J seats I want, when I want them.

This gets canvassed every few months. Glad that you are leaving because what’s really made this less attractive is as you note the mum and dads market. Personally I still think there are opportunities out there but frankly the more people who no longer do the better!

 

[Dr Ev]

This gets canvassed every few months. Glad that you are leaving because what’s really made this less attractive is as you note the mum and dads market. Personally I still think there are opportunities out there but frankly the more people who no longer do the better!

Fair enough

 

[levelnine]

They won't necessarily go anywhere. They don't need a similar card. After a certain point the annual fee becomes less and less worth it as does using the card for transactions. If it was this easy for them to devalue in quick succession then we would've seen them devalue a lot more a long time ago.

The other cards don't really have much in the way of international transfer partners as it is. Also the nature of the devaluation depends on whether there's a carve out for premium cards as mooted above. If there is then we might not see much of one.

Michelle Bullock sounded very defiant a few months ago on this but now suddenly has been forced to delay things.

Amex doesn't pre-empt legislative changes. Indeed, it is often the last to react.

A good example is the last big legislative change to credit card earning structures in Australia. In 2017, the RBA began to regulate interchange fees. It only applied to Visa and MC. They devalued quickly. Amex devalued two years later, in 2019, to increase Amex acceptance and because competition in the Australian space had reduced.

It makes sense. Amex is part of a global corporation. There are many stages to a devaluation, far more than a purely domestic bank. They have to move slower. It's also important to realise that Amex tends to do it devaluations in global waves. The 2025 Australian devaluation is part of the global refresh of 40 products that was started in 2024.

Also, the current rumours are worse, not better, for Amex. The initial proposed reforms were not even going to apply to Amex. Indeed, that was one of the major complaints of the big four. Now the latest rumours are they will be directly affected.

 

[am0985]

Also, the current rumours are worse, not better, for Amex. The initial proposed reforms were not even going to apply to Amex. Indeed, that was one of the major complaints of the big four. Now the latest rumours are they will be directly affected.

I don't think either of these things are true.

I haven't heard any latest rumours about them being directly affected? Feel free to point me to them if I'm wrong but these changes were always about the banks. The RBA doesn't even have the same jurisdiction over Amex AFAIK.

The rumours as they are would have affected Amex. Not directly but indirectly. If interchange fees were drastically lowered for other cards and Amex kept their fees stagnant, we would've gone back to seeing Visa/MC being accepted by merchants in significant preference to Amex.

 

[Chicken]

In the AFR today: “RBA rethinks credit card surcharge ban, payment fee cut after stoush”

Everyone for themselves.
Shops don't want bans.
Banks say 'we are poor, and look over there! At Visa MC!'
Banks trying to create more confusions (by separate charging for platinum business international etc).

Imagine you go to the baker, the croissant has a $5 price tag, but then the baker goes 'It's actually $5.1 because the price of butter gone up this week'.

Then when the baker put it in a bag, they say 'it's $5.1 for taking it away with your bare hands, $5.2 for having it in serviettes, $5.3 for wanting it in a paper bag.

The whole situation is completely insane.

When I now see a Tyro or Westpac terminal, I press the surcharge button on the screen, and it would show 2 pages of surcharges. The shopkeeper would freak as they have never seen that screen and they would think that I have touched something I should not have touched. I have to educate them on what I was doing, and show them what it is.

Clearly I am not talking from the view of earning points, I am looking at this from the consumer rights and fair trading point of view.

 

[Waddygib]

Amex doesn't pre-empt legislative changes. Indeed, it is often the last to react.

A good example is the last big legislative change to credit card earning structures in Australia. In 2017, the RBA began to regulate interchange fees. It only applied to Visa and MC. They devalued quickly. Amex devalued two years later, in 2019, to increase Amex acceptance and because competition in the Australian space had reduced.

It makes sense. Amex is part of a global corporation. There are many stages to a devaluation, far more than a purely domestic bank. They have to move slower. It's also important to realise that Amex tends to do it devaluations in global waves. The 2025 Australian devaluation is part of the global refresh of 40 products that was started in 2024.

Also, the current rumours are worse, not better, for Amex. The initial proposed reforms were not even going to apply to Amex. Indeed, that was one of the major complaints of the big four. Now the latest rumours are they will be directly affected.

They can't be directly affected as there is no interchange in an Amex transaction.

 

[Doctore1003]

Actually the RBA was recently given the power to regulate Amex and is considering doing so.

As per the article I posted:

“The regulator also confirmed in that meeting that it was considering using new powers to allow it to regulate Apple, American Express and buy now, pay later providers, flagging a public consultation mid next year.”

 

[transpactraveller]

I’m not entirely against surcharges but the way they are currently allowed without proper price transparency should be illegal.

The payment terminal displays a price for you to pay, you tap your card and the price on the screen changes to the higher price including a surcharge after the transaction approves. But you’re not given the opportunity to accept or reject and pay with another method at this point if you don’t like the surcharge (eg it seems excessively high). It should be like an ATM fee with a ‘do you wish to continue or cancel?’ prompt.

Or just display the price with the surcharge on the payment terminal instead of the price without.

 

[Waddygib]

Actually the RBA was recently given the power to regulate Amex and is considering doing so.

As per the article I posted:

“The regulator also confirmed in that meeting that it was considering using new powers to allow it to regulate Apple, American Express and buy now, pay later providers, flagging a public consultation mid next year.”

That would require legislative change which I hadn't heard about. Has that happened?

They still wouldn't be impacted by interchange caps as there is no interchange in an Amex card transaction

EDIT: there has been some amendments. They now have the power to be given the power but haven't actually been given the power yet (if that makes sense)

 

[kyle]

I still cannot understand how shops survived before when they didn't put on card surcharges. It's more a case of because everyone else is doing it, I should be too. If they have to increase the price to cover the fees, then I'd imagine others would have to as well, so there's no loss of competitiveness.

RBA walking back on the original plan just smacks of appeasing the banks when other places in the world have banned surcharges.

And trying to distinguishing premium cards and different surcharge rates will probably make it a mess, just like the rot we're in now.

 

[Waddygib]

I don't think the banks stand to lose nearly as much from the changes as Qantas does.

The vast majority of interchange revenue goes to airlines. If the revenue pool shrinks, it will come from their pockets