Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[clifford]

This just in from Westpac, for Westpac Altitude Qantas Black credit card: Interest rate, cash rate, and annual fee all UP from 30th September!
So if the bank is now going to charge us instead of the business, what changed - except the cc user is actually worse off! And banks can vary their charges on a whim!

Yes, I got an email from Westpac today too. I'm not sure how it relates to my situation, so I'll wait until it happens and then decide whether I can handle the changes or not. If not, I'll be changing to a different card. I'm not really your average punter.

 

[Mr_Orange]

People, stop crying about the change. It's happening and it's not going to get reversed. Move on. As I have said before, we should never have even been in this situation to start off with.

Quite frankly, any business that is upset about this should immediately be folded!

 

[HMcM]

People, stop crying about the change. It's happening and it's not going to get reversed. Move on. As I have said before, we should never have even been in this situation to start off with.

Quite frankly, any business that is upset about this should immediately be folded!

And we should never be in the upcoming situation of price controls either.

cough decisions get reversed all the time. The previous market control (preventing private businesses from putting restrictions on other companies they do business with) was bad, the new market control (telling a private company for what fee they must sell their service) is also bad.

This change doesn't fix the issue, it makes a new issue.

 

[Happy Dude]

I had two contrasting experiences last week, paying with the same NAB/MyCard Premier Mastercard.

New tyres $1,850 - no surcharge.
Medical specialist $720 - $7 surcharge.

One operates in a competitive market, the other doesn't. If that's not opportunistic surcharging, then I don't know what is. There are many instances like this where surcharge bans are a good thing.

Come October, I'll earn fewer points for those transactions but I'm coming from an already low earn, so I'm not overly invested with these changes. I'll be more affected if Amex is "enhanced". Sure, the banks fees on transactions will be reduced but we still need make the transactions and now, generally, prices are higher, so the nett effect to the banks is perhaps overstated. Seems to me that the banks are throwing the baby out with the bath water. They should be incentivising credit card use and uptake of high-end cards to bridge the gap between today's fees and the lower fees from October.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Medical specialist

This category surcharging has always got my goat. As if they don't charge more than enough in the first place to suck up 1-2%.

 

[lovestotravel]

People, stop crying about the change. It's happening and it's not going to get reversed. Move on. As I have said before, we should never have even been in this situation to start off with.

Quite frankly, any business that is upset about this should immediately be folded!

Ever run a business ?

They can't simply absorb 1-2%

I had two contrasting experiences last week, paying with the same NAB/MyCard Premier Mastercard.

New tyres $1,850 - no surcharge.
Medical specialist $720 - $7 surcharge.

One operates in a competitive market, the other doesn't. If that's not opportunistic surcharging, then I don't know what is. There are many instances like this where surcharge bans are a good thing.

Come October, I'll earn fewer points for those transactions but I'm coming from an already low earn, so I'm not overly invested with these changes. I'll be more affected if Amex is "enhanced". Sure, the banks fees on transactions will be reduced but we still need make the transactions and now, generally, prices are higher, so the nett effect to the banks is perhaps overstated. Seems to me that the banks are throwing the baby out with the bath water. They should be incentivising credit card use and uptake of high-end cards to bridge the gap between today's fees and the lower fees from October.

Assuming the tyres were from a large business though ?

It's generally the small businesses that surcharge, these are the ones that will simply raise prices

 

[serfty]

...
...
"the card processing cost that would previously have been charged separately will instead be incorporated into the remaining booking amount. This does not increase the total amount you would have paid if the card surcharge had continued to be charged separately; it only changes how and when the amount is presented."
...

I too received an email with exactly the same text from a travel agent. It spiked my interest, as unless the "remaining booking amount" is actually referring to the agent's fee and not the fare being booked, such may contravene the changes.

 

[JohnK]

I have not seen surcharges dropped in most places that I shop.

Paid Queensland rego online today and they stopped taking Amex and added 0.49% surcharge for Visa.

Many POS terminals still have surcharge.

And yes bank and credit card companies have sent out letters that interest rates and fees are increasing.

 

[lovestotravel]

I too received an email with exactly the same text from a travel agent. It spiked my interest, as unless the "remaining booking amount" is actually referring to the agent's fee and not the fare being booked, such may contravene the changes.

Yes I assumed a few on here might get the same email...

 

[Mr_Orange]

Paid Queensland rego online today and they stopped taking Amex and added 0.49% surcharge for Visa.

That isn't a recent change.

Come 1st October, they will have to drop the 0.49% surcharge though.

 

[dajop]

Ever run a business ?

They can't simply absorb 1-2%

I would assume that may depend on many factors.

For a business that largely runs on cash / bank transfer today but accepts credit card with surcharge then I guess it could several ways. If they see significant upswing in credit card usage they might have to add 2% to bills and provide a 2% discount for paying by cash or bank transfer Or stop taking credit cards.

For businesses already with high card usage (thinking hotels, car hire etc) that surcharge it’s probably more a matter of raising prices to the surcharge amount and being honest about what people are already paying.

Another way, particularly online is to apply a discount based on payment method of when you get to the payment screen.

I guess it will take a few months for things to settle and businesses to work out what’s best for them. Some may even shop around for payment processors to get better fees.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Let's assume that most businesses were competent enough to include the cost of acceptance in their planning to it is baked into their prices. Along come the RBA a few years ago and limits surcharging to the actual cost. Surcharging exploding which probably means that many businesses were effectively double-dipping by introducing a surcharge. Those same businesses are now whinging about having to remove the surcharge despite the fact that they already accounted for the cost of acceptance and that cost is reducing.

 

[Happy Dude]

Assuming the tyres were from a large business though ?

It's generally the small businesses that surcharge, these are the ones that will simply raise prices

Not sure if a franchisee of a Goodyear in CBR is small or large business? I got quotes from Jaxx and Tyre Power too - no surcharge apparent. Didn't think to look elsewhere but not sure they'd be competitive on price.

I'm interested to see if large businesses with non-fixed pricing that surcharge, like say VA and QF, raise prices. Or negotiable ones like a car dealer. They'll probably just not accept cards. Not so with Origin and iiNet. They'll have to suck it up until the next plan.

 

[dajop]

I'm interested to see if large businesses with non-fixed pricing that surcharge, like say VA and QF, raise prices.

Surely VA and QF always have and always will set prices in such a manner to maximise yield. They would have quite robust data on what proportion of sales from what channels are surcharges or not and this would factor into pricing decisions.

TBH most people wouldn’t notice if your fare to Europe is $2140 one day and $2170 the next. It might well have been $1980 three weeks earlier or even three weeks later as pricing is tweaked.