How to prepare your business for the surcharge ban (checklist)

From 1 October 2026 you won’t be able to surcharge eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments — debit, prepaid or credit. This checklist helps you understand what you currently charge, what it costs you, and the steps to be ready in good time. It’s general information, not financial or legal advice.

Step by step

1. Find your blended ratePull your recent merchant statements and work out your blended rate — one average percentage across all card types. Divide your total card fees by your total card turnover for the period. This single number tells you roughly what accepting cards costs you today, which is the baseline for every decision that follows.
2. Map every payment point that surchargesList every place you take card payments: in-store terminals, your online checkout, invoices, phone orders and any booking system. Note which ones currently add a surcharge and at what rate. You can’t switch off something you haven’t found, so a complete map matters.
3. Plan to switch off surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and VisaFor each payment point you mapped, plan how you’ll remove surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa — debit, prepaid and credit — by 1 October 2026. Enforcement comes through scheme rules and your merchant agreement rather than ACCC prosecution, but surcharging covered cards anyway risks your provider terminating card acceptance. Amex and PayPal surcharges within your cost of acceptance can stay if you choose.
4. Decide absorb vs build into pricesOnce surcharging stops, the card cost lands on you, so decide whether to absorb it or build it into your prices. Absorbing protects sticker prices but trims margin; building it in spreads the cost across all customers, including those paying cash. There’s no single right answer — model both against your blended rate.
5. Check least-cost routing for debitAround 85% of Australian debit cards are dual-network, and least-cost routing sends each tap to the cheaper network. The RBA estimates this can cut debit acceptance costs by roughly 20%. Ask your provider whether LCR is switched on for your terminals, as it’s one of the simplest ways to lower what cards cost you.
6. Compare your rate and confirm pass-throughCompare your blended rate against current indicative benchmarks — in-person around 1.37% and online around 1.78% are indicative only. From 1 October 2026 interchange caps fall, but the merchant service fee itself isn’t capped, so savings only reach you if your provider passes the interchange cuts through. Ask your provider, in writing, how they’ll reflect the lower interchange in your pricing.
7. Diarise the key datesPut 1 October 2026 in your calendar — surcharge ban plus the first round of interchange caps — and 1 April 2027 for foreign-card interchange caps and extra statement transparency. The RBA review of Amex, BNPL and wallet-provider fees begins mid-2026, so keep an eye on it. A reminder now means you act early rather than scrambling.

Source: RBA Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging — Conclusions Paper (March 2026).