Australians should no longer be hit with an extra fee simply for tapping or inserting most debit and credit cards, with new no-surcharge rules taking effect from today, 1 October 2026.
The change covers payments made through eftpos, Visa and Mastercard, including debit, credit and prepaid cards, after the Reserve Bank of Australia concluded the existing surcharge system was no longer working as intended.
American Express and UnionPay have also introduced no-surcharge rules from today, while PayPal is due to follow from 5 October.
For consumers, it means the familiar extra 1 or 2 per cent card fee at the checkout should largely disappear.
What changes from today?
Businesses accepting Visa, Mastercard or eftpos cards can no longer add a separate fee solely because a customer has chosen to pay using one of those cards.
That applies to:
Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards
Mastercard debit, credit and prepaid cards
eftpos debit and prepaid cards
American Express
UnionPay
The Reserve Bank changed its regulatory framework to allow the major card networks to impose no-surcharge rules on merchants from 1 October.
The ACCC says businesses accepting those card types must comply with the new card-network rules.
Australians were paying around $1.6 billion a year
One of the biggest reasons behind the change is the sheer amount Australians were paying in card fees.
The RBA estimates consumers were paying approximately $1.6 billion a year in surcharges on designated card networks, out of around $1.8 billion in total annual surcharge payments.
Around 16 per cent of merchants were estimated to be applying card surcharges before the reform.
The Reserve Bank said consumers increasingly found it difficult to avoid those fees as Australia moved further away from cash.
It also found many people preferred businesses to simply include payment-processing costs in the advertised price instead of adding another charge at the register.
Does this mean everything gets cheaper?
Not necessarily.
Businesses still have to pay fees to banks and payment providers when customers use cards.
What has changed is whether those costs can be shown as a separate card surcharge.
The RBA itself acknowledged that some businesses may respond by increasing their advertised prices to recover payment-processing costs.
Small-business and hospitality representatives have also warned that businesses operating on tight margins may have little choice but to incorporate those costs into menu or shelf prices.
So while customers should no longer see a separate card fee added at the checkout, some of the cost may ultimately be spread across prices more generally.
The big difference is that the price you see should more closely reflect the price you actually pay.
Other surcharges have not been banned
The new rules specifically target card payment surcharges.
They do not prevent businesses from charging other legitimate fees such as:
weekend surcharges
public holiday surcharges
booking fees
service fees
Those charges remain separate from the new card rules.
That means a café can still impose a Sunday surcharge, for example — it just cannot add another fee because a customer chooses to pay using a Visa or Mastercard.
What about cash?
Businesses can still accept cash, and the RBA says merchants may use discounts to encourage customers toward particular payment methods where appropriate.
That means a business could potentially advertise one standard price and then offer customers a discount for paying using a particular method, provided it complies with Australian Consumer Law and pricing requirements.
Payment fees for businesses still exist
The reform does not eliminate merchant payment costs.
Businesses may still pay their bank or payment provider fees for:
processing card transactions
payment terminal rental
merchant services
acquiring services
other payment technology
Those are costs charged to the business, rather than a surcharge added to the customer’s bill.
The Reserve Bank has also lowered some interchange fee caps from today in an effort to reduce payment costs further.
Domestic consumer credit-card interchange fees are now capped at 0.30 per cent, while debit and prepaid interchange fees are capped at 8 cents or 0.16 per cent where a percentage-based fee applies.
More transparency coming
Today’s changes are part of a broader overhaul of Australia’s card-payment system.
From 30 October, major card networks and large payment acquirers will be required to publish more information about card-payment fees.
From 30 January 2027, large acquirers will also have to publish information showing how lower interchange fees have flowed through into merchant service fees.
Additional changes covering foreign-issued cards will begin from 1 April 2027.
The aim is to make the payment system easier for both businesses and consumers to understand.
What should customers look out for?
From today, consumers should generally no longer see a separate Visa, Mastercard or eftpos surcharge added to a transaction.
That includes the small percentage charges commonly added by cafés, restaurants, retailers and other businesses at the payment terminal.
However, customers should remember that legitimate weekend, public-holiday, booking and service fees can still apply.
Businesses also remain responsible for displaying prices in accordance with Australian Consumer Law.
A major change to the way Australians pay
Card surcharges have been part of Australian shopping for more than two decades.
But with roughly three-quarters of transactions now made using debit and credit cards, the Reserve Bank concluded that paying by card had become too mainstream for consumers to realistically avoid the additional fees.
From today, those fees should disappear from most everyday card transactions.
Whether consumers ultimately save the full amount remains to be seen, particularly if businesses respond by increasing advertised prices.
But one thing should become simpler:
When you see a price on the shelf, menu or screen, paying by card should no longer automatically make it more expensive at the checkout.