Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[Doctore1003]

If only “premium” FF cards have a surcharge, you can probably expect it to be so high as to cancel out the value of the points.

 

[Chicken]

What is it that you are doing?

If you see a Tyro or Westpac terminal, when you are given the terminal to pay, look at the screen, there is a touch screen button called 'surcharge info'. You press that on the screen, and it would show you like

EFTPOS 0%
EFTPOS tap 0%
Visa debit 0.4%
MC debit 0.4%
Visa credit 0.8%
MC credit 0.7%
JCB 2.5%
AmEx 1.9%

and so on and so on.

That's how I decide which card I will be using.

 

[levelnine]

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.

Both are true:

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. ...

The reference to a higher rate for corporate credit cards is a response to warnings from banks that a reduction in the interchange fee caps as initially proposed would threaten their commercial viability, while allowing financial institutions such as American Express, which is not captured by the RBA’s proposed reforms, to win more market share. ...

https://archive.md/LvLJM

 

[MELso]

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.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Payments System Modernisation) Act 2025 passed Parliament a couple of months ago, and extended RBA powers to Amex, BNPL and other payment systems.

(Of course, in the typical style of modern Australian regulation, the RBA looks let to cave at the slightest hint of whingeing by industry. Sigh...)