Card Payment Surcharges Banned in Australia from 2026

[kpc]

Just seen this one pop up on Reddit

Some businesses sure are desperate to keep the surcharge game alive!


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That is illegal and should be reported to ACCC or whoever is the reporting body.

 

[CaptJCool]

I’ve sat In cafes and looked at their menu app and done an order which then adds
$3 to $5 extra for “app usage admin”

Walk up to the counter and order none of these fees applicable.

The point of banning them is to stop these nuisance fees being added onto the final price.

So any efforts to “add any fees” however they might be named or what they are purported to cover is contrary to the spirit of the new regulation.

I did see something where the $5.50 coffee had an 8cents surcharge so now it’s priced at $6!

 

[turnip666]

My local cafe did not raise prices yesterday, but did introduce a 10% weekend surcharge today. I always paid cash, so my weekend coffees cover card users surcharges during the week.

 

[SeaWolf]

Surcharge Tracker: Flat White Prices After Card Surcharges End | Small Flat White

Card surcharges end on 1 October 2026, so cafes can no longer charge extra for paying by card. We're re-pricing the same Australian cafes before and after to show how flat white prices change.

smallflatwhite.com

Price went up at 20% of the cafes, median price increase is $0.50.

That's a great site, it's nice to have some concrete stats around this, rather than just anecdotes about what one cafe did or didn't do.

 

[Pushka]

So as we refuse to pay our car rego by letting them direct debit, there's no bpay option, if SA stop credit cards to pay it then it means lining up at the Post Office to pay by cash, or cheque. It's like going back to the Stone Age.

 

[Happy Dude]

Councils and state revenue offices don't (at least not readily), so expect them to remove credit card payment as an option too. Fair enough too, given that the payment processing costs are imposed on other taxpayers.

Vic SRO charges a card payment fee (Vias, MC only) according to my land tax bill.

Now they can't but presumably the usual annual increase will include an amount to cover that. The issue now is finding a rewards credit card that gives points for gov spend.

 

[MELso]

Vic SRO charges a card payment fee (Vias, MC only) according to my land tax bill.

Now they can't but presumably the usual annual increase will include an amount to cover that. The issue now is finding a rewards credit card that gives points for gov spend.

I suspect now that the ATO has pulled the plug that the various State Revenue Offices and local councils will follow suit in due course for much the same reason: to avoid having other taxpayers/ratepayers eat the cost of the interchange fee.

I'd say a far more likely reason why nothing's been announced by the Victorian SRO is that there's an election in two months and having the sort of asinine kerfuffle that blew up this week over the ATO and coffee prices is something the current government wishes to avoid.

 

[Pushka]

I suspect now that the ATO has pulled the plug that the various State Revenue Offices and local councils will follow suit in due course for much the same reason: to avoid having other taxpayers/ratepayers eat the cost of the interchange fee.

I'd say a far more likely reason why nothing's been announced by the Victorian SRO is that there's an election in two months and having the sort of asinine kerfuffle that blew up this week over the ATO and coffee prices is something the current government wishes to avoid.

That’s fine but ours in SA don’t all offer bpay.

 

[drron]

So as we refuse to pay our car rego by letting them direct debit, there's no bpay option, if SA stop credit cards to pay it then it means lining up at the Post Office to pay by cash, or cheque. It's like going back to the Stone Age.

And from 30/09/29 no more cheques.

Australia’s Cheques Transition Plan | Treasury.gov.au

The government is releasing its Cheques Transition Plan (the Plan) which sets out the next steps to ensure an orderly and planned shift away from the use of cheques. It provides:

treasury.gov.au

 

[Happy Dude]

That is illegal and should be reported to ACCC or whoever is the reporting body.

I don't fully understand. Assume it's adequately signed, would it be different to, say, a weekend surcharge?