Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[RealtimeY]

With the amount of attention now on those apparently trying to skirt the surcharging rules, I wouldn’t expect those to be particularly long lived or pervasive. Australian consumers don’t like drip pricing, just look at the poll results.

 

[SeaWolf]

The ACCC has a page now specifically dedicated to card surcharges and the changes.

Card surcharges

From 1 October 2026, businesses can no longer add a surcharge for payments made using Visa, Mastercard, American Express and eftpos cards.

www.accc.gov.au

Also includes a section down the bottom, "Next steps for Consumers" that links to the pages of Visa, Mastercard and AmEx to report a business that is still surcharging. For eftpos it suggests contacting the bank that issued your card instead.

 

[DC3]

Lots of great photos going around today:

View attachment 523618

Does anyone still carry cash?

 

[kpc]

Does anyone still carry cash?

Yes. You dont eat much at Asian restaurants?!

 

[Pushka]

Media are covering how this is failing due to many places increasing their prices.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

If anyone slaps me with an additional service fee I'll be declining to purchase their product

 

[Pushka]

If anyone slaps me with an additional service fee I'll be declining to purchase their product

If you know in advance.

 

[zig]

Does anyone still carry cash?

Yes, in the last 12 months I have started to use cash as I was tired of paying ridiculous surcharges which I thought outweighed the value of points I would get by paying on cards.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

If you know in advance.

Yeah well I will be walking away even if they've made the coffee already if it's not made clear in advance. (as an example)

 

[kpc]

As I'm trying to spend 38K on my HSBC Star Alliance Visa card by Nov 17 to guarantee STAR A Gold with Aeroplan and Virgin lounge access til 31.12.28, I just prepaid the 3 remaining installments of my Council rates with my credit card. Normally, there is a 1% surcharge to use a credit card, but this is no longer, and I saved $15.24

You win some, you lose some with the RBA changes!