Card Surcharges Disappear on 1 October: What Actually Changes at the Checkout
From 1 October 2026 that 1.5% card fee at the cafe is gone. Here's what the RBA's surcharge ban really covers, what it doesn't, and why prices may still move.
You know the moment. You tap your card for a $4.50 coffee, glance at the terminal, and the total says $4.57. Seven cents. Annoying rather than ruinous, but it happens several times a day, every day, for years.
On 1 October 2026 that line disappears for most of the cards in your wallet. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has confirmed the end of card payment surcharges, and it is one of the few money changes this year that needs nothing from you at all — no form, no phone call, no switching.
It is also widely misunderstood. Here is exactly what changes, what quietly does not, and the one thing worth watching in the months afterwards.
What actually changes on 1 October
In March 2026 the RBA finished a long review of what card payments cost businesses and customers. Its conclusion: businesses should no longer be allowed to add a separate card surcharge on top of the advertised price.
From 1 October 2026, surcharging ends across the card networks the RBA regulates — eftpos, Mastercard and Visa — and it covers debit, prepaid and credit cards on all three. American Express is not one of those regulated networks, but has said it will drop surcharging from the same date anyway.
In practice that means the vast majority of card taps, dips and online checkouts in Australia stop carrying a surcharge line on the same day.
- Covered: eftpos, Mastercard and Visa — debit, prepaid and credit
- Covered by choice: American Express, which has agreed to match the date
- Not covered: Diners Club, PayPal and buy now, pay later services
- Not covered: fees that are not about the card, such as booking or service fees
What it is worth to you
The RBA estimates Australian consumers hand over roughly $1.6 billion a year in surcharges on the regulated networks alone. Spread across the country, it is a small tax on the simple act of not carrying cash.
Your own share depends entirely on where you shop. Supermarkets and big retailers mostly absorb card costs already, so you will notice nothing there. The saving shows up at cafes, taxis and rideshares, tradies, ticketing sites, sporting clubs and small service businesses — the places where a 1% to 1.5% line is routine.
Worked example
Say about $600 a month of your spending lands at businesses that surcharge — a few coffees and lunches, a taxi, a kids' sport registration, a couple of ticket bookings — at an average 1.3%. That is $7.80 a month, or roughly $94 a year, that stops leaving your account. One-off bills sting more: a $1,500 plumber's invoice paid by credit card with a 1.5% surcharge costs $22.50 extra today, and nothing from 1 October.
The trap: a surcharge ban is not a price cut
This is the part that catches people, and it is worth being clear-eyed about it. Accepting cards still costs a business money. The RBA has not made card payments free — it has stopped businesses from showing that cost as a separate line at the till.
Businesses are allowed to build those costs into their normal prices instead, and the RBA has said so plainly. Some will absorb it. Others will round a $4.50 coffee up to $4.60 and quietly come out ahead. You may end up better off, level, or fractionally worse off depending on where you spend.
To soften the blow for merchants, the RBA is also cutting the fees that flow to card issuers. The cap on interchange for domestic consumer credit cards drops from 0.8% to 0.3%, with debit caps trimmed too, though the cap on commercial cards stays at 0.8%. The RBA has estimated the whole package could be worth up to about $1.8 billion a year to consumers and businesses combined.
The misconception worth clearing up
The ban stops the card surcharge, not every extra charge. A restaurant can still add a Sunday or public holiday surcharge. A venue can still charge a genuine booking fee, and a delivery service can still charge for delivery. What matters is the substance of the fee, not what it is called — a 'processing fee' that is really a card surcharge in disguise is not allowed.
What to do if you still see one
If a business still adds a card surcharge after 1 October, the first move is simply to point it out. Terminals and online checkouts need reconfiguring, and in the early weeks some genuinely will not have been updated.
If that does not resolve it, the rules here are enforced through the card networks' own scheme rules and merchant contracts rather than by a consumer regulator, so the complaint belongs with the business's card network or payment provider. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) still handles misleading pricing more generally — such as an advertised price that is never actually available.
- Check a receipt or two in early October so you know what your regular spots are doing
- A surcharge on eftpos, Mastercard, Visa or Amex after 1 October should not be there
- A Sunday, public holiday or genuine booking fee still can be, and is not a breach
- Diners Club and buy now, pay later sit outside the ban entirely
If you run a side hustle or small business
The flip side matters if you invoice customers yourself. From 1 October you cannot pass card costs on as a surcharge on the regulated networks, so the merchant fee your payment provider charges comes straight out of your margin. For many small operators the lower interchange caps will offset a good part of that, but not all of it.
The consolation is that those merchant fees are a normal business expense. If you earn income through an ABN, the card processing fees you pay are generally deductible against that income, the same as your accounting software or your business insurance. Keep the provider statements — the fee is usually netted off your settlement rather than billed separately, which makes it easy to forget at tax time.
The one-line takeaway
From 1 October 2026, the card surcharge on eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and Amex is gone. It is a real saving at the places that charged it, it is not a guarantee that prices stay still, and the fees that were never card surcharges in the first place are staying exactly where they are.
FAQ
Does this mean everything gets cheaper on 1 October?
No. The separate surcharge line goes, but businesses still pay to accept cards and are allowed to fold that cost into their ordinary prices. Expect a clear saving at places that charged an obvious surcharge, and little visible change at businesses that were already absorbing the cost.
Can a restaurant still add a weekend or public holiday surcharge?
Yes. Those are not card surcharges — they apply however you pay — so they fall outside the ban. The same goes for genuine booking fees, service fees and delivery charges. What is not allowed is relabelling a card fee as something else.
What about buy now, pay later or PayPal?
They are not covered. The RBA's rules apply to the card networks it regulates, and American Express has volunteered to follow. Diners Club, PayPal and buy now, pay later services sit outside, though a provider's own merchant contract may set its own rules.
Could this affect my credit card rewards points?
Possibly, over time. Interchange fees are a large part of what funds rewards programs, and the cap on domestic consumer credit cards is dropping from 0.8% to 0.3%. Nothing changes automatically on 1 October, but it is worth reading any notice your card issuer sends about earn rates or annual fees over the following year.
Run your own numbers