Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[Be.au]

Don't forget most businesses didn't apply a surcharge prior to covid, but those costs still existed prior to surcharging becoming rampant. Businesses had already built those costs into their prices.

So when they added a surcharge, they should have reduced the price for cash payers. I doubt any did.

Most were just pocketing the surcharge as extra profit.

Prices also went up though - we saw more blended rates or single rates, and we saw smarter terminals that could apply the appropriate surcharge.

Prior to the blended rate, a debit Mastercard could have a different fee to a debit Visa to a credit Mastercard or a credit Visa or an eftpos SAV/CHQ transaction - making it almost impossible to apply manually.

But bring on smarter terminals or simpler processing fees, surcharging becomes much easier to pass on.