What's changing

Visa, Mastercard and EFTPOS are introducing “no-surcharge” rules from 1 October 2026.¹ The RBA lifted its prohibition on no-surcharge rules from that date; the three networks each decided to introduce them.¹ The changes apply to credit, debit and prepaid card payments on those networks.¹

The RBA defines a surcharge as “an extra fee charged by a merchant to a consumer for using a particular card to pay for a transaction.”¹ The ACCC says businesses cannot continue to charge customers a surcharge for using these payment types.² The rules are set by each network’s scheme rules and merchant contracts, and the ACCC says the card networks or payment service providers are responsible for enforcing them.²

American Express is “not currently subject to formal regulation by the RBA,” but it has also decided to remove surcharging from 1 October 2026.¹

One point that matters for invoicing: “If a card payment is made on or after 1 October 2026, surcharging may no longer be available even if the invoice was issued earlier.”¹

Why it’s happening

The RBA began its review of the card payments system in October 2024³ and published its conclusions on 31 March 2026.⁴ It concluded that it is in the public interest to remove surcharging.¹ In its words, “Surcharging is no longer achieving its intended purpose.”⁵ It also said removing surcharging “would make card payments simpler, more transparent and increase competition among payment service providers.”⁴

The RBA estimates consumers are paying $1.6 billion of a total $1.8 billion in card payment surcharges charged each year on designated card networks.⁶

The RBA is also changing interchange fees, as part of reforms “intended to lower merchants’ card payment costs.”¹ That includes capping consumer credit interchange at 0.3 per cent of transaction value.⁷ The RBA describes the effect of the new interchange caps as “lowering wholesale card payment costs for merchants by around $910 million per year.”⁶ Most of these changes take effect on 1 October 2026. The new cap on foreign-issued cards and some transparency changes come later, on 1 April 2027.⁴

What to do before 1 October

• Talk to your payment provider. Ask what changes on your terminal and online checkout. The RBA also notes that businesses “may wish to review whether they are on the best payment plan for their payment needs.”¹

• Check where you mention a card surcharge. Think signage, menus, checkout pages and invoice templates.

• Don't rename the fee. The ACCC says businesses “shouldn’t try to avoid the ‘no surcharge’ rules” by describing a card payment surcharge as another type of fee, and that doing so “may be engaging in misleading conduct.”²

What this means for your books

Card processing costs don’t go away. The RBA says “businesses will still incur costs when accepting card payments after surcharging is removed.”¹ We can show you what card fees currently cost in your books. Pricing decisions are yours.