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Effective 1 October, Australian businesses are prohibited from adding separate card payment surcharges for most major payment networks, including Visa, Mastercard, and EFTPOS, meaning consumers will pay the advertised sticker price.
The end of card surcharges is finally here, but Australia ns could still feel the cost in other ways. Business es can encourage customers to use an alternative payment method by offering a discount instead of imposing a card surcharge.
The changes do not affect legitimate booking fees, service fees, delivery charges or hospitality surcharges for weekends and public holidays. From tomorrow, the familiar sting of a card surcharge will disappear for Australians paying with most major cards. What exactly changes from tomorrow? From 1 October, businesses can no longer add a separate surcharge simply because a customer pays by card on the affected payment networks.
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox. The change comes through new no-surcharge rules introduced by the card networks and follows a Reserve Bank of Australia review into card payment costs and surcharging that found removing them would support a more efficient and competitive payments system.
"When card surcharging ends, the sticker price will be the price that consumers end up paying," the RBA website explained. In other words, if an item is advertised at $100, that's the price you'll pay and you should no longer see an extra card-payment fee added when you tap or insert your card. The surcharge ban covers EFTPOS, Visa and Mastercard, including credit, debit and prepaid cards.
American Express and UnionPay are also removing surcharges from 1 October, while PayPal's equivalent change takes effect on 5 October. The rules generally apply whether the card was issued in Australia or overseas, although individual network rules and exemptions can apply. Yes. The change is about the payment method, not whether you are standing at a shop counter or buying from a website.
So an online retailer cannot simply retain a separate Visa, Mastercard or EFTPOS card surcharge because the transaction happens online. The same principle applies to card payments made through apps and other digital checkout systems. Yes, as the RBA site explained: "The changes only apply to surcharges added because a customer pays by card.
" The changes do not affect legitimate booking fees, service fees, delivery charges or hospitality surcharges for weekends and public holidays. Businesses will still have costs associated with processing card payments, but what's changing is they can no longer add them as an extra fee. They may choose to incorporate them into the total price. The RBA says, "those costs can be reflected in a business’s overall pricing, rather than charged as a separate surcharge".
Yes. Businesses are generally free to set and change their prices, as long as they do not mislead customers. That means a cafe, retailer, or professional service could increase its standard price to cover payment-processing costs. Businesses can choose which payment methods they accept and can set minimum card-payment amounts, subject to applicable rules.
So don't assume every business will have to accept your card simply because surcharges are disappearing. Yes. Businesses can encourage customers to use another payment method by offering a discount rather than imposing a card surcharge. What should you do if you’re still charged a card surcharge?
First, check what the fee actually is. It may be a legitimate booking, service or weekend surcharge rather than a card-payment surcharge. If it appears to be a card surcharge, raise it with the business and ask them to remove the fee or refund it.
"Businesses shouldn’t try to avoid the 'no surcharge' rules … by describing a card payment surcharge as another type of fee or charge," the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on its website. From 1 October, consumers can also raise concerns with the relevant card network or the business's payment provider and can report potentially misleading pricing to the ACCC or their state or territory consumer protection agency.
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