What you can still charge for after 1 October

Short answer: weekend surcharges, public holiday surcharges, booking fees and service fees all survive. It’s only the card surcharge that dies on 1 October.

That’s a big confusion in the market right now, and I can see people about to over-correct — tearing down signs for fees they’re perfectly entitled to keep.

This matters most in food and beverage — restaurants, cafes, pubs, market stalls. Those businesses often carry a handful of surcharges, and only one of them is affected.

The test

One question sorts it: does this fee appear only because the customer used a card?

If yes, it’s gone. If it applies no matter how they pay, it stays.

A 10% Sunday surcharge applies to the bloke paying cash as much as the one tapping. It stays. A 1.5% card surcharge only exists because plastic came out of the wallet. It goes.

Where cash discounts fit

Here’s the innovative option, and it’s a legitimate one: offer a discount for cash.

The RBA has been clear that businesses wanting to steer customers toward other payment methods can use discounts instead of surcharges. So 2% off for cash, 5% off for cash, a couple of percent back on anything over a hundred bucks, something free with a cash payment — all of that is open to you.

Which may well mean cash comes back into the market a bit. I’d expect to see more of these signs, not fewer.

But it has to be a genuine discount

There’s a rule to this, and it’s the whole difference between a cash discount that survives and one that gets you in trouble.

It has to be a genuine discount off a real price. Not a card fee wearing a hat.

If the sign says $10, and you knock it down to $9.50 for cash, that’s a discount. Your displayed price is $10, everyone can pay $10, and some people pay less. Fine.

If the sign says $9.50, and you add 50 cents when someone taps, that’s a surcharge. Doesn’t matter what you call it on the receipt. Same money, same two customers paying different amounts — but you’ve built it as a fee that only appears because somebody used a card, and that’s exactly the thing that’s now gone.

The economics are identical. The compliance outcome isn’t. The only thing that changed is which number you put on the board.

So if you go down this road, the price on your menu, your website and your shelf tickets has to be the card price — the full price, the one that includes your cost of accepting cards. The discount comes off that. Do it the other way around and you’ve just renamed your surcharge, and I’d expect that to get closed off pretty quickly.

Before you do it: cash is not free

Everyone forgets this bit.

Somebody has to take that cash to the bank. If they do it over the counter at a branch rather than through a cash acceptance machine, plenty of banks charge an over-the-counter fee — I’ve seen around 0.25%. That’s a real cost. Then there’s the staff member walking down there, waiting in the queue, feeding it in. Also a cost.

And look, there’s a reason the cash economy exists and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But it’s declarable income, the ATO is not stupid, and it’s not something I’d build a business on. So let’s leave that there and talk about what cash actually costs you.

Because the costs don’t stop at the deposit fee. Cash has to be counted, and counted twice — once at the till and once before it’s banked. It goes missing. Not always dishonestly, but tills run over and under, and every variance is time someone spends working out why. It sits in your shop overnight, which is a risk you’re carrying whether you think about it or not.

Now compare that to a card payment. It just appears in your bank. It’s reconciled, it’s recorded, it’s a known commodity, and nobody had to queue at a branch to make it happen.

So yes, the card costs you a percent, maybe more. But you’re paying that percent for money that counts itself. Before you write a cash discount into your pricing, work out what your cash is really costing you — the deposit fees, the staff time, the variances, the risk. I’d challenge you to get it much under what you’re paying on cards, and plenty of businesses will find it’s worse.

If you want a hand working out what you’re actually paying on cards before you decide, give us a call. That number is usually the one that settles the argument.

FAQ

Can I still charge a weekend or public holiday surcharge after 1 October 2026?

Yes. The ban only covers surcharges applied because a customer paid by card. Weekend and public holiday surcharges apply regardless of payment method, so they’re unaffected.

Are booking fees and service fees still allowed?

Yes. Booking fees, service fees and split-bill fees all survive, for the same reason — they aren’t triggered by the customer’s choice of payment method.

Can I offer a discount for cash instead of surcharging cards?

Yes. The RBA has confirmed merchants can use payment-method discounts to steer customers, rather than surcharges. The catch is that it has to be a genuine discount off your displayed price, not a card fee renamed.

What’s the difference between a cash discount and a card surcharge?

Which number you display. If your advertised price is the card price and cash pays less, that’s a discount. If your advertised price is the cash price and card pays more, that’s a surcharge — and that’s banned, whatever you call it.

Is a cash discount actually worth it?

Work out what cash costs you first. Over-the-counter deposit fees, staff time banking it, double counting, till variances and overnight risk all add up, and for a lot of businesses that lands above what they pay to accept a card.

What exactly is banned from 1 October?

Any surcharge applied because a customer paid by card — debit, prepaid or credit, across eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, American Express and UnionPay. Here’s the full rundown of the reform.