Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[aplmac]

Also with no fee the % paying with CC could increase as well so that $30k could easily double.

Indeed - that was also a consideration. We've already just had a levy increase, and I reckon allowing CC payments would end up resulting in a further levy increase to cover the admin cost of that - so realistically the OC is better off by removing CC payment option, as it would be a no-win situation, especially for those who don't pay by CC.
Alas, the Law of Unintended Consequences...

 

[levelnine]

My favourite anecdote about the changes so far.

One Stripe user reports that Stripe is keeping 90% of the reduction in interchange rates for themselves — they're dropping their rates by a mere 0.05%.

So glad we destroyed the system of credit card rewards in Australia for this...

 

[lovestotravel]

This change was never actually going to be good for anyone

 

[Mr_Orange]

The reality is that that RBA cough*ed up when they introduced the last lot of legislation that said that businesses could only pass on the actual cost of acceptance. That made surcharging more common place. It was back then that they should have made the changes that they are introducing now since businesses that weren't surcharging would have seen their cost of acceptance reduce and there would have been no change to customer the since we were, for the most part, paying the price on the sticker.

At the moment, most businesses surcharge and they have got used to that gravy train but now have to can their surcharges and decide whether to suck up the cost of acceptance or smear a small price increase across everything that they sell.

 

[HMcM]

This change was never actually going to be good for anyone

I wonder how long before the ~60% who thought these changes were good get hit hard by reality.

 

[lovestotravel]

I wonder how long before the ~60% who thought these changes were good get hit hard by reality.

That really surprises me on here, which is a FF forum, where points are KING!

 

[oz_mark]

The reality is that that RBA cough*ed up when they introduced the last lot of legislation that said that businesses could only pass on the actual cost of acceptance. That made surcharging more common place. It was back then that they should have made the changes that they are introducing now since businesses that weren't surcharging would have seen their cost of acceptance reduce and there would have been no change to customer since we were, for the most part, paying the price on the sticker.

At the moment, most businesses surcharge and they have got used to that gravy train but now have to can their surcharges and decide whether to suck up the cost of acceptance or smear a small price increase across everything that they sell.

I think some of the increase recently has come about as many merchants move to the likes of stripe and square. They made it trivially easy for merchants to set up surcharging.

 

[Berlin]

The reality is that that RBA cough*ed up when they introduced the last lot of legislation

This was f…ed up much before then, when our government (or whoever) down here came up with this idiotic surcharge practice to begin with! Nowhere else on this entire globe were, let’s say, multinational hotel chains allowed to charge you hundreds of Dollars per stay for the “convenience” of using a credit card. Yes, in some places maybe dodgy businesses started surcharging but that was really the exception. And yes, now that they’re on the gravy train…

But given those surcharges don’t exist in most other places, I still hope that after some time competition will sort this out, ie customers voting with their wallets. And then it’s somehow “over” (ending up not being in a P&L somewhere anymore that used to be “AU&NZ gravy train”)- like everywhere else in the world.

 

[piec]

Surcharges suck, I'm happy they will be gone.

 

[transpactraveller]

Has the RBA messed up here or is there something broken with Australia's banks and payment infrastructure?

As has been mentioned, the rest of the world doesn't seem to have this problem. Most other countries have no surcharges, lower fees, and still maintain decent credit card reward programs.

The only thing I noticed different is that Australia has lower interest rates on credit cards. I was looking at some UK and US cards and their rewards cards charge around 30-40% interest, compared to ours which are around 20%. So I guess that's how they fund their rewards programs charging higher interest?

 

[HMcM]

Has the RBA messed up here or is there something fundamentally broken with Australia's banks and payment infrastructure?

As has been mentioned, the rest of the world doesn't seem to have this problem.

Doesn't it? Look at the differences with sign on bonuses in the UK with restricted interchange fees vs in the US where it is much more free market.

There's a reason we have a massive thread of people trying to acquire a US amex and nobody is trying to get a UK amex.

 

[transpactraveller]

I travel to the US regularly and don't think I've ever encountered a surcharge for paying by card.

So I don't think US Amex is offering better rewards because of card surcharges.

 

[freqflyer77]

Most other countries have no surcharges, lower fees, and still maintain decent credit card reward programs.

Do they?

I'm not arguing the point but I'm curious to know what countries actually have all 3.

 

[SYD]

I travel to the US regularly and don't think I've ever encountered a surcharge for paying by card.

I posted in the Cash or Card thread about going to a bar in Chicago. Sign up, “Card Only”. They proceeded to charge 3%….