New card surchage rules start 1 Sep 2017

[Happy Dude]

EFTPOS, credit card surcharges: Excessive fees to be banned across all businesses - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

There's a fairly strong disincentive to accept AmEx over other methods especially if the fee is much higher. Not that that doesn't exist now.

There is contradiction with theses two paragraphs:

"That means if a business's cost of processing for Visa debit is 1 per cent, while its cost for Visa credit is 1.5 per cent and for American Express is 2.5 per cent, the single surcharge would need to be 1 per cent, because that is the lowest of all payment methods."

and

"Payment types not covered by the ban include American Express cards issued directly by American Express, BPAY, PayPal, Diners Club cards and cheques."

So is AmEx in or not? If the intent of the ban is to allow businesses to recoup their costs, and no more, then not allowing a higher surcharge for certain payment methods seems restrictive.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

EFTPOS, credit card surcharges: Excessive fees to be banned across all businesses - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

There's a fairly strong disincentive to accept AmEx over other methods especially if the fee is much higher. Not that that doesn't exist now.

There is contradiction with theses two paragraphs:

"That means if a business's cost of processing for Visa debit is 1 per cent, while its cost for Visa credit is 1.5 per cent and for American Express is 2.5 per cent, the single surcharge would need to be 1 per cent, because that is the lowest of all payment methods."

and

"Payment types not covered by the ban include American Express cards issued directly by American Express, BPAY, PayPal, Diners Club cards and cheques."

So is AmEx in or not? If the intent of the ban is to allow businesses to recoup their costs, and no more, then not allowing a higher surcharge for certain payment methods seems restrictive.

There are Amex Cards issued via the banks.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

EFTPOS, credit card surcharges: Excessive fees to be banned across all businesses - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"That means if a business's cost of processing for Visa debit is 1 per cent, while its cost for Visa credit is 1.5 per cent and for American Express is 2.5 per cent, the single surcharge would need to be 1 per cent, because that is the lowest of all payment methods."

.

"Our advice for businesses wanting to set a single surcharge regardless of the type of card their customers use, is it must be the lowest of all the payment methods," Dr Schaper added.

So they can have different rates for each type. Or if just the one, then it must be the lowest rate.

 

[Happy Dude]

So what's going to change then? Just the coffee shops that charge 50c to paywave will now charge 4-8c and more for the coffee? There'll be fun conversations confirming bank or direct AmEx's.

 

[Mattg]

Just yesterday I wanted to buy a loaf of bread from my local bakery, and was told that as the transaction was under a certain amount I would be charged a 30c surcharge for paying with my debit card.

I am sure that this is higher than the cost of accepting the payment ($4), so I would assume this would be illegal from tomorrow. But how would it actually be enforced? As a customer, what can I do if my bakery (or any other business) continues trying to surcharge excessively?

 

[ftm]

Just yesterday I wanted to buy a loaf of bread from my local bakery, and was told that as the transaction was under a certain amount I would be charged a 30c surcharge for paying with my debit card.

I am sure that this is higher than the cost of accepting the payment ($4), so I would assume this would be illegal from tomorrow. But how would it actually be enforced? As a customer, what can I do if my bakery (or any other business) continues trying to surcharge excessively?

Debit cards can be a fixed rate, so on small transaction amounts they can be more expensive than Amex to process. So your bakery could be quite accurate in what they are charging.

 

[Mattg]

Debit cards can be a fixed rate, so on small transaction amounts they can be more expensive than Amex to process. So your bakery could be quite accurate in what they are charging.

All of the news articles seem to suggest that fixed surcharges are no longer allowed. Hence my confusion.

 

[2tall4Y]

Fixed surcharges are still allowed, as long as the amount of the surcharge does not exceed the merchant's cost of acceptance for any given transaction' - see:

https://www.accc.gov.au/business/pr...surcharges#can-i-impose-a-flat-fee-surcharge-

All of the news articles seem to suggest that fixed surcharges are no longer allowed. Hence my confusion.

 

[Danger]

So what's going to change then? Just the coffee shops that charge 50c to paywave will now charge 4-8c and more for the coffee? There'll be fun conversations confirming bank or direct AmEx's.

Well Hyatt hotels in Australia (and presumably most other hotels) have routinely charged 3% for all types of cards for the past few years. Hyatt has already reduced their surcharge to 1.5% for non-Amexs which to me indicates we've all clearly been fleeced (I'm sure this isn't a surprise to anyone).

Just yesterday I wanted to buy a loaf of bread from my local bakery, and was told that as the transaction was under a certain amount I would be charged a 30c surcharge for paying with my debit card.

I am sure that this is higher than the cost of accepting the payment ($4), so I would assume this would be illegal from tomorrow. But how would it actually be enforced? As a customer, what can I do if my bakery (or any other business) continues trying to surcharge excessively?

It's not like we can go to the local cop shop and report it, unfortunately. I have outlined an issue I've had with Jetstar recently - http://www.australianfrequentflyer....q-price-beat-changes-79888-4.html#post1683067. The ACCC won't do a thing unless it gets a truckload of reports. The chance of this happening is remote at best.

 

[big_RED]

Is there anyway the ACCC is policing the surcharges companies are now charging after all the changes?
e.g. At Crystal Carwash I was charged 3% for an Amex transaction. Since Amex have also reduced their surcharge, I'm wondering how anyone can actually challenge these surcharges?

e.g. from an article "According to the Reserve Bank, Amex charges average merchant service fees of 1.58 per cent of a transaction's value, compared with 0.78 per cent for MasterCard and Visa, and 1.8 per for Diners Club."