Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

Are you happy with the RBA's proposed changes to surcharging and interchange fees?

  • Total voters
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I just received communication from my strata management company that my exuberant strata fees will not be payable by credit cards from October onwards- rather rudely so and without any alternatives offered but BPay. And about 2,000 AUD per quarter matters much more than the occasional coffee shop not accepting Amex which is not something I had on my radar tbh.

I fear there will be other cases like this coming our way: If my gym suddenly starts not accepting card payments anymore? Then I’ll chose a different gym and you can bet your grandma that this gym will go out of business in no time. If the little family run Vietnamese lunch place around the corner suddenly only accepts cash? Well then, goodbye little Vietnamese lunch place, there are others. But my Strata fee? It’s one of those things where you can’t just “go to the competition”. Nothing really I can do besides selling my place which is not really a realistic option. And of course, I can try and pressure my strata company to change payment providers which I’ve already started with. I can only hope that over time, all the outstanding strata fees from people who used to rely on credit cards will make them change their approach.
 
Berlin said:
I just received communication from my strata management company that my exuberant strata fees will not be payable by credit cards from October onwards- rather rudely so and without any alternatives offered but BPay. And about 2,000 AUD per quarter matters much more than the occasional coffee shop not accepting Amex which is not something I had on my radar tbh.

I fear there will be other cases like this coming our way: If my gym suddenly starts not accepting card payments anymore? Then I’ll chose a different gym and you can bet your grandma that this gym will go out of business in no time. If the little family run Vietnamese lunch place around the corner suddenly only accepts cash? Well then, goodbye little Vietnamese lunch place, there are others. But my Strata fee? It’s one of those things where you can’t just “go to the competition”. Nothing really I can do besides selling my place which is not really a realistic option. And of course, I can try and pressure my strata company to change payment providers which I’ve already started with. I can only hope that over time, all the outstanding strata fees from people who used to rely on credit cards will make them change their approach.
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Can you not use a card to pay BPAY - mine still offers DEFT but I wonder if that will stop
 
Berlin said:
I just received communication from my strata management company that my exuberant strata fees will not be payable by credit cards from October onwards- rather rudely so and without any alternatives offered but BPay. And about 2,000 AUD per quarter matters much more than the occasional coffee shop not accepting Amex which is not something I had on my radar tbh.

I fear there will be other cases like this coming our way: If my gym suddenly starts not accepting card payments anymore? Then I’ll chose a different gym and you can bet your grandma that this gym will go out of business in no time. If the little family run Vietnamese lunch place around the corner suddenly only accepts cash? Well then, goodbye little Vietnamese lunch place, there are others. But my Strata fee? It’s one of those things where you can’t just “go to the competition”. Nothing really I can do besides selling my place which is not really a realistic option. And of course, I can try and pressure my strata company to change payment providers which I’ve already started with. I can only hope that over time, all the outstanding strata fees from people who used to rely on credit cards will make them change their approach.
Click to expand...
I think there’s a bunch of companies like RewardPay that can act as a middleman but check the fees first
 
sniip, yakpay etc @Berlin

The fee may even be less than the strata fee. If you pay using bpay for free, how many airline points are you missing out on? 4k? But you'd be ~$80 better off so don't sweat it!
 
It does surprise me the amount of extra fees some people are willing to pay to earn a relatively small amount of points! I suppose if you were needing to get a minimum spend sign-up bonus over the line it could make sense.
 
VPS said:
Can you not use a card to pay BPAY - mine still offers DEFT but I wonder if that will stop
Click to expand...
DEFT, a subsidiary of Macquarie Bank btw, are the ones stopping to accept any credit card payments from October onwards. They are the reason my STRATA informed me in their newsletter today.
 
As long as the bill has a BPAY option, you can pay it with a credit card via Sniip or similar platform. Just keep in mind that the fees can become quite high on payments worth thousands of dollars. For that reason, it may only be worthwhile if you're trying to reach the minimum spend required for a credit card sign-up bonus.

These surcharge bans will probably make people think twice about chasing credit card bonus points. Not only will you now pay a higher annual fee for a rewards card, but the cost of meeting the minimum spend requirement is increasing as well. It's definitely made me consider chasing cheap flights instead of collecting points and then finding I can't get a reward seat on the dates I want...
 

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