Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[SeatBackForward]

Australia has high inflation because most people don't shop around, they just blindly pay whatever's asked

Which allows greed/exploitation to be masked under the technical term "Inflation"

 

[drron]

A recent survey showed that Sydney has the second highest cost of living in the world. Only beaten by Hong Kong. No wonder discretionary spending has fallen and has had a negative effect on the hospitality sector.
I don’t blame them for using this as an excuse to raise prices.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I don’t blame them for using this as an excuse to raise prices.

Yet there's never excuses for dropping prices.

 

[kpc]

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One of my locals

Are they offering a discount for paying cash? If not, I will be telling them I will be shopping around

 

[CaptJCool]

Shopping around

How far can you walk in an hour ?
Petrol prices all over the shop

Convenience versus going out of your way to your favourite cafe …. Hmmm

No mortgage ? Fly frequently ?
20 cents extra will not break the bank

 

[serfty]

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One of my locals

That is great! It shows the change to regulation is working.

A customer will know exactly how much they will be paying when their credit card is processed.

 

[SimonR32]

Spoke to EFTPOS merchant who was actively calling customers to discuss deals and offers using the surcharge ban as pretext for the call.

She mentioned that 100% of their customers she has spoken to were going to move the surcharge fees to normal pricing. So in effect, on that basis, everyone is paying for credit card fees now, not just the ones who use them. Great initiative, really helping the average Australian.

 

[serfty]

Jestar have removed their ex OZ fees for Credit Cards.

https://www.jetstar.com/au/en/help/fees-and-charges

 

[lovestotravel]

That is great! It shows the change to regulation is working.

A customer will know exactly how much they will be paying when their credit card is processed.

Yep higher prices for those paying cash too More inflation - Great indeed

 

[serfty]

Yep higher prices for those paying cash too More inflation - Great indeed

To what percentage level you feel this change will affect inflation?

 

[lovestotravel]

To what percentage level you feel this change will affect inflation?

0.1% but that was from the RBA that also said these changes would people money, so I expect more then 0.1%

Surcharge ban won’t end scrutiny on payment costs, RBA warns

Labor MP Jerome Laxale says focus will now shift to payments costs for business, issuing a warning to payment service providers and digital wallets.

www.afr.com

Higher interest rates, is great for me though

 

[Quickstatus]

Here is a workaround

 

[Be.au]

Here is a workaround

View attachment 523613

Pretty sure Apple Pay would work just fine through that.

 

[Quickstatus]

Pretty sure Apple Pay would work just fine through that.

Tap won't work
Proximity not close enough
And the terminal needs to be activated with amount to be deducted

 

[Be.au]

Tap won't work
Proximity not close enough
And the terminal needs to be activated with amount to be deducted

It's OK I'm pretty sure it's AI!

(and you'd be surprised how far back I've held my phone from a terminal and had the payment succeed, so it looks like there'd be plenty of room above that plastic box)

Or, I'd just walk out without paying, having had them waste their time making the coffee and leaving it on the counter.

 

[ausfox]

You usually pay first at coffee shops.

 

[Quickstatus]

(and you'd be surprised how far back I've held my phone

I'll tell th to put a bigger box in

 

[Be.au]

You usually pay first at coffee shops.

Not the ones I've been to recently

 

[serfty]

0.1% but that was from the RBA that also said these changes would people money, so I expect more then 0.1%

Surcharge ban won’t end scrutiny on payment costs, RBA warns

Labor MP Jerome Laxale says focus will now shift to payments costs for business, issuing a warning to payment service providers and digital wallets.

www.afr.com

Higher interest rates, is great for me though

You are perfectly right to expect individual price changes higher than 0.1% at the cash register. The 0.1% figure is a macroeconomic calculation by the RBA based on the total net impact across the entire economy.

Menu and shelf item adjustments will be larger at the individual level; when a business includes payment terminal fees into its general pricing they must round up to the nearest logical cash tier, so with a $5.00 coffee having a 1.5% processing fee factored in by a café, the item cost increases by 7.5 cents to $5.08. Because there are no 1¢ or 2¢ coins this needs to be rounded up. That coffee will likely become $5.10, $5.20, or even $5.50.

So, the out-of-pocket variance on a specific retail item or meal in some places will seem much more pronounced than 0.1%. However, the general impact to inflation will be much less than that since the RBA's 0.1% figure is a calculation based across the entire consumer price index coming from areas such as utilities, rent, healthcare, major retailers, etc. & an your local coffee shop.

Included also in the calculation is that, before the ban only about 16% of Australian businesses actively applied a card surcharge; so the above cost recovery increase only applies to a fraction of transactions in specific sectors like small retail or hospitality.

To add to that, last year cash accounted for ~15% of payment transactions and 8% of value of consumer transactions in Australia which further dilutes that $5.50 coffee impact.‡

So Life goes on; If there is a choice between similar products of $5.50 or $5.10, I know where I'll head ...

‡ Cash Use in Australia: What the 2025 Consumer Payments Survey Tells Us | Bulletin – April 2026