RBA surcharge ban 2026: what merchants need to know
From 1 October 2026 you cannot surcharge card payments. What is covered, what is not, how the rule actually reaches your business, and what to do before the date.
From 1 October 2026, Australian businesses can no longer add a surcharge to card payments. On the same day the wholesale interchange caps behind those payments are cut. A second stage, covering foreign-issued cards and fee transparency, follows on 1 April 2027.
If you currently recover 1.5% or more through a surcharge, that recovery ends and the cost lands on your margin. Some of it is offset by the interchange cuts. How much depends on your card mix and on what your provider passes through.
This is the reference page: what is covered, what is not, how the obligation actually reaches you, and what to do in the weeks you have left.
How the rule actually works
This is the part almost every article gets wrong, and it explains most of the confusion.
The RBA has not banned surcharging. For over twenty years its Surcharging Standard prohibited the card networks from writing no-surcharge rules into their own scheme rules — the RBA did that deliberately, so merchants could surcharge and put price pressure back on the networks.
What has changed is that the RBA has removed that prohibition, under Standard No. 3 of 2016. eftpos, Mastercard and Visa — the three networks the RBA designates for regulation — have each then decided to impose a no-surcharge rule from 1 October 2026.
Three consequences follow, and they are the practical ones:
- Coverage is ragged, because each network decided separately. It is not uniform, and it was never going to be.
- The obligation reaches you through your merchant agreement, not through a regulator. Card networks set rules for their participants; your acquirer or payment service provider passes them to you. The RBA does not directly regulate merchants. Your merchant agreement is the document that tells you what applies to your business.
- Networks can change their own rules. The RBA’s own note says the rules taking effect are “business decisions taken by each network and may be subject to change.”
What is covered
| Network | Products | Surcharging from 1 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| eftpos | Debit, prepaid | Not permitted |
| Mastercard | Credit, debit, prepaid | Not permitted |
| Visa | Credit, debit, prepaid | Not permitted |
| American Express | Credit | Not permitted — Amex’s own decision |
American Express is not subject to RBA regulation. It has chosen to match the three designated networks. Its companion-card system was designated in 2015 and that designation was revoked in November 2021, so it currently holds none.
Not covered: UnionPay, Diners Club, JCB and Discover. None is designated by the RBA and none has announced a no-surcharge rule. Surcharging on those cards is unaffected as things stand — but they are free to announce one, so re-check before October.
What is not a surcharge
The change applies only to a fee charged because the customer paid by card. It does not touch:
- weekend or public holiday surcharges
- booking fees and service fees
- the fees your payment provider charges you — terminal rental, transaction processing, monthly minimums. Those are fees for services provided to your business. They are not card surcharges and they continue unchanged.
That last point matters when you read your statement, because it is where your actual cost of acceptance lives.
The interchange cuts
Interchange is the largest wholesale component of what you pay to accept a card. Three of the four caps move.
| Cap | Before | From 1 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic consumer credit | 0.80% | 0.30% |
| Domestic debit and prepaid | 0.20% ex GST (or $0.10) | 0.16% (or $0.08) |
| Commercial and business credit | 0.80% | Unchanged |
| Foreign-issued cards | — | Capped from 1 April 2027 |
Commercial cards are the one to watch. They stay at 0.80%, so a business with a B2B-heavy card mix gets materially less benefit than a consumer-facing retailer. If you sell to other businesses, do not assume the headlines apply to you.
Debit is where the volume is. For most retail and hospitality businesses debit is the bulk of transactions, so that cap is doing more work on your bill than the credit cut is — even though the credit cut is the bigger headline number.
A caution on reading caps
A 0.30% cap on consumer credit interchange does not mean you should expect to pay 0.30%. Interchange is one input into a stack that also carries scheme fees, acquiring costs, terminal and support costs, compliance, and your provider’s margin.
Businesses that negotiate hard on the bank’s margin while ignoring interchange and scheme fees routinely leave more on the table than they save. The two have to be looked at together.
For reference, here is what Australian merchants actually paid on average in the December quarter 2025, as a percentage of transaction value:
| Network | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| eftpos | 0.42% | — |
| Visa | 0.55% | 0.96% |
| Mastercard | 0.58% | 0.97% |
| American Express | — | 1.33% |
Exemptions, and the situations people ask about
A business is not exempt unless a card network’s rules provide an exemption or one is provided by law. Whether any exist is each network’s decision, not the RBA’s.
Business-to-business payments are not exempt on any separate basis.
Invoices issued before 1 October, paid after. If the card payment lands on or after the date, surcharging may not be available even though the invoice predates it. Several providers have said they will disable the functionality from that date. Ask yours directly.
Taxis remain with state and territory regulators.
Regulated-price businesses may not be able to adjust prices in response. The RBA has notified governments and price regulators so it can be factored into future decisions.
What you can still do
- Offer discounts for other payment methods. Unaffected. Removing the prohibition on no-surcharge rules is not intended to stop businesses discounting for a preferred method. Check ACCC guidance on how to display it.
- Build the cost into your prices. This is what the reform expects. The cost does not vanish; it moves from a line on the bill into the sticker price, which is what consumers say they prefer.
- Surcharge non-card methods. The RBA does not currently regulate those. Confirm with your provider and check ACCC guidance first.
What to do before 1 October
- Work out your true cost of acceptance as a percentage of card turnover — total fees divided by total card volume, not the headline rate you were quoted. That is the number you will be absorbing.
- Break down your card mix. Debit, consumer credit, commercial, international. The reforms treat each differently, so your mix determines what you actually gain.
- Check whether your pricing model assumes surcharging. Some “zero cost” or “surcharge-free” EFTPOS products are built on it. Those need re-quoting, not adjusting.
- Confirm least cost routing is enabled, which reduces the cost you are about to start absorbing.
- Read your merchant agreement. It is the document that governs what applies to you, and it is where any network exemption would show up.
- Model your prices without the surcharge before the date, not after it.
The businesses most exposed are the ones surcharging above their actual cost of acceptance, and the ones whose provider priced on the assumption that surcharging continues.
What the reform is worth
The RBA estimates the surcharge removal saves consumers around $1.6 billion a year, and saves businesses around $200 million a year in surcharge-related fees they currently pay their own providers. The interchange cuts sit on top of that.
Confirm the current position against the RBA before making a pricing decision.
FAQ
What is the RBA surcharge ban?
From 1 October 2026, businesses cannot add a surcharge to card payments on eftpos, Mastercard, Visa or American Express credit. Strictly, the RBA removed the rule that stopped those networks banning surcharging themselves, and each network then decided to do so.
Which cards does it cover?
eftpos on debit and prepaid; Mastercard and Visa on credit, debit and prepaid; American Express on credit. UnionPay, Diners Club, JCB and Discover are not designated by the RBA and have announced no such rule.
Are interchange fees changing at the same time?
Yes, on the same day. Domestic consumer credit falls from 0.80% to 0.30%, and domestic debit and prepaid from 0.20% ex GST (or $0.10) to 0.16% (or $0.08). Commercial and business credit stays at 0.80%. Foreign-issued card caps commence 1 April 2027.
Does it apply to online payments as well as in store?
Yes. It applies to card acceptance on the covered networks whether the customer taps in store, pays online, or is charged over the phone.
Can I just put my prices up instead?
Yes, and that is what the reform anticipates — the cost moves into your overall pricing rather than sitting as a separate line. Negotiate your merchant rate first, though, so you know what you actually need to recover.
What happens to surcharge-free or zero-cost EFTPOS products?
Ask your provider directly. Some of those products are priced on the assumption that surcharging continues, in which case they need re-quoting rather than adjusting.
Will the ban make card payments cheaper for my business?
Not by itself — it removes your ability to pass the cost on. The interchange cuts landing the same day reduce the underlying cost, but how much you gain depends on your card mix and what your provider passes through. A business already on a sharp rate will see less change than one paying well above market.
Who enforces this on my business?
Not the RBA, which does not directly regulate merchants. The rule reaches you through your merchant agreement with your acquirer or payment service provider, which passes down the card networks’ rules.