Card Surcharges Are Banned From October 2026. Is Your Business Ready?

Are you ready for the changes to merchant fees coming in October 2026?

If you run a business in Australia and you add a surcharge when someone pays by card, listen up: that's about to be illegal.

From 1st October 2026, the Reserve Bank is banning card surcharges on eftpos, Visa and Mastercard payments. No more tacking on 1.5% at the terminal. The cost of accepting cards doesn't disappear; it just stops being something you can pass to the customer, and starts being something that comes straight out of your margin.

For a lot of businesses, that's a quiet hit to profit they haven't seen coming. Here's what's actually changing, what it means for you, and exactly what to do about it before October.

These changes are happening

This isn't a rumour or a proposal. The Reserve Bank reviewed the whole card payments system and made its final call. Three things are changing:

1. Surcharges are gone. From 1 October 2026 you can't add a surcharge on eftpos, Visa or Mastercard payments. If you want to recover the cost, it has to be built into your prices.

2. The fees businesses pay are being cut. The cap on credit card interchange (the biggest slice of your merchant fee) is dropping from 0.8% to 0.3%. In theory, accepting cards gets cheaper.

3. The RBA reckons it'll save businesses about $910 million a year, with small businesses set to benefit the most — because small businesses currently pay the highest fees.

You can read the RBA's own announcement on it here if you want it straight from the source.

Are you ready?

Most businesses aren't, and it comes down to one question: do you currently surcharge?

• If you don't surcharge — not much changes for you directly, but you should still check you're getting the lower fees you've been promised (more on that below).

• If you do surcharge — this is a real change. That little percentage you've been recovering at the till is about to vanish, and unless you do something, it comes out of your pocket.

Either way, the businesses that come out ahead are the ones who look at their numbers now, not the week before the deadline.

What does it mean for you?

Here's the part nobody's spelling out — because there are three catches.

Amex isn't included. The ban only covers eftpos, Visa and Mastercard. American Express fees, usually the highest of the lot can continue to be surcharged on to customers.

The savings only land if your provider passes them on. Interchange dropping doesn't automatically lower your bill. Your provider sets your rate, and nothing forces them to hand you the saving instead of keeping it. Plenty won't — unless you push or switch.

You can still offer a discount for cash or bank transfer. The ban is on surcharging cards, not on rewarding other payment methods.

What can you do

Four things, none of them hard:

1. Work out what you're really paying. Grab last month's merchant statement and do one sum:

Total fees ÷ total card sales × 100 = your real effective rate.

Took $40,000 in card payments and paid $760 in fees? That's a 1.9% effective rate. That's your real number — not the rate you were quoted when you signed up, which never matches reality once every fee is counted.

2. Check your provider is passing on the cuts. Once the new caps kick in, your effective rate should drop. If it doesn't, that's a conversation — or a reason to move.

3. Plan for the surcharge loss now. If you currently surcharge, work out what absorbing that fee does to your margin, and whether your prices need a small, quiet adjustment before October.

4. Get a second opinion before you renew anything. Providers count on you not bothering to compare. Bother.

What this looks like in real life

Let's put real numbers on it. This is the cost that's about to shift from your customers to you.

Same sales, different rate. At $1m in card turnover, the gap between 1.2% and 1.9% is $7,000 a year — money most businesses never realise they're losing.

Want us to find out for you?

We work with several providers who are hunting for your merchant terminal business.

If we cant help you save on your fees, we’ll give you a $50 VISA card as a thank you for your time.

Contact us now to find out if we can get you a better rate! Click here

Archie James Group helps Australian small and medium businesses keep more of their money and more of their time. This article is general information only and doesn't take your specific circumstances into account.