Across 21 payment providers operating in Australia, the published in-person card rate ranges from 1.1% to 1.7% and the online rate from 1.4% to 2.9%. The single biggest finding is a transparency gap: only 38% of providers publish a flat in-person rate at all, and the rest quote case by case. On $50,000 a month in card turnover, the difference between the cheapest and dearest online rate is worth about $9,000 a year.
This report is based on MerchantCompare's own structured pricing dataset, current as of June 2026. Every figure below is in Australian dollars and reflects each provider's publicly advertised standard pricing. Methodology is at the bottom.
Key findings
- Only 38% of providers (8 of 21) publish a flat in-person transaction rate. The other 62% require a custom quote, do not offer in-person acceptance, or price on interchange-plus. For online, just 52% (11 of 21) publish a flat rate.
- Published in-person rates range from 1.1% to 1.7%, with a median of 1.4% and an average of 1.37%. The big-four-bank flat plans (CommBank, NAB, Westpac) sit at the low end; flat-rate fintechs (Square, Stripe) at the high end.
- Published online rates range from 1.4% to 2.9%, median 1.7%. The 1.5-percentage-point spread is the widest in the dataset.
- 9 of 21 providers charge $0 per month. The four bank terminal plans that carry a monthly fee average $24.56/month.
- Only 67% of providers (14 of 21) offer least-cost routing, the feature that automatically sends contactless debit down the cheaper eftpos network. A third still do not.
- International card surcharges vary from 0% to 2.1%. Only three providers (Square, SumUp, Zeller) absorb the international margin at 0%.
- Up-front terminal cost ranges from $0 to $199, averaging about $56 among providers that publish a price.
In-person card rates (flat-rate providers, ranked)
| Provider | In-person rate |
|---|---|
| CommBank Smart | 1.10% |
| NAB | 1.15% |
| Westpac | 1.20% |
| Bendigo Bank | 1.40% |
| SumUp | 1.40% |
| Zeller | 1.40% |
| Square | 1.60% |
| Stripe | 1.70% |
The remaining 13 providers (including ANZ, Tyro, Clover, Till Payments, Fat Zebra, Windcave and Adyen) do not publish a flat in-person rate; they quote per merchant, price on interchange-plus, or do not offer in-person acceptance.
Online card rates (flat-rate providers, ranked)
| Provider | Online rate |
|---|---|
| Bendigo Bank | 1.40% |
| NAB | 1.40% |
| Westpac | 1.40% |
| Eway | 1.50% |
| Pin Payments | 1.60% |
| Stripe | 1.70% |
| Tyro | 1.70% |
| Zeller | 1.70% |
| SumUp | 2.10% |
| Square | 2.20% |
| PayPal | 2.90% |
At $50,000 a month in online card sales, moving from a 2.9% rate to a 1.4% rate saves $750 a month, or $9,000 a year. That gap is why the effective rate on your statement matters more than any single sticker price.
Monthly fees and terminal costs
Most providers have abolished the monthly account fee: 9 of 21 charge $0/month. Where a monthly fee remains, it is the traditional bank terminal plans:
| Provider | Monthly fee | Terminal cost |
|---|---|---|
| CommBank Smart | $29.50 | $0 |
| NAB | $25.00 | $25 |
| Westpac | $24.75 | $24.75 |
| Bendigo Bank | $19.00 | $19 |
Among flat-rate fintechs, the cost has shifted from the monthly fee to the hardware: Square charges $65 for its reader, Stripe From $89, and Zeller From $99, while SumUp is From $24 and CommBank bundles the terminal at From $0. The full Zeller vs Square matchup weighs the hardware gap against the ongoing rate difference.
The transparency gap
The clearest pattern in the data is not price, it is disclosure. Fewer than four in ten providers will tell you their in-person rate without a sales conversation. Enterprise acquirers and several bank products price every merchant individually, which makes genuine comparison hard and tends to favour the provider, not the merchant. Flat-rate publishers (Square, Stripe, Zeller, SumUp, and the bank simple-plans) are the exception, not the rule.
Re-verified July 2026: the gap has not closed. We re-checked all 21 providers' Australian pricing pages in July and not one has begun publishing a rate it previously withheld. One provider moved slightly, and it does not change the picture: Fat Zebra now publishes a gateway plan (from $250 a month plus $0.30 per transaction) but still no percentage rate. Four months on from the RBA announcing a reform package explicitly aimed at payment-cost transparency, the providers that price behind a quote are still pricing behind a quote.
This is the core reason an independent, like-for-like comparison exists: when most of the market hides its pricing behind a quote, a neutral dataset is the only way to see the real spread. You can run your own numbers against every provider in our payment provider comparison and merchant fee calculator.
Why this matters in 2026: the surcharge changes
These rates are about to become far more visible to merchants. With the Reserve Bank of Australia moving to curb card surcharging, businesses that previously passed card costs straight to customers will increasingly absorb them, turning the merchant fee into a direct margin cost. A 1.5-percentage-point difference in rate stops being the customer's problem and becomes yours. We model the impact in the credit card surcharge calculator, and explain the rule change in our RBA surcharge ban guide.
Surcharging itself is a second transparency gap, and we mapped it in July 2026: 19 of these 21 providers let you surcharge, but almost none publish a rate, because the surcharge is yours to set and the law caps it at your own cost of acceptance. Only Pin Payments calculates it for you and states the figure, and only Stripe, Till Payments, and Westpac publish a ceiling. The full provider-by-provider breakdown is in who lets you surcharge, and what they publish.
Methodology
We analysed the publicly advertised standard pricing of 21 payment providers operating in Australia: ANZ, Adyen, Bendigo Bank, Checkout.com, Clover, CommBank Smart, Eway, Fat Zebra, NAB, PayPal, Pin Payments, SecurePay, Smartpay, Square, Stripe, SumUp, Till Payments, Tyro, Westpac, Windcave and Zeller. Figures are each provider's standard published rate (not negotiated or interchange-plus deals), in Australian dollars, current as of June 2026 and re-verified against every provider's own Australian pricing pages in July 2026. Where a provider does not publish a flat rate, it is excluded from the rate averages and counted in the transparency figures. Source: MerchantCompare's structured provider pricing dataset. This report may be cited with attribution to MerchantCompare (merchantcompare.com.au).
FAQ
What is the average merchant fee in Australia?
Among providers that publish a flat rate, the average in-person card rate is 1.37% and the average online rate is 1.78%. Most small businesses pay an effective rate between 1.1% and 2.5% once card mix and surcharging are accounted for.
What is the cheapest card payment rate in Australia?
The lowest published in-person rate in our dataset is 1.10% (CommBank Smart), and the lowest published online rate is 1.40% (Bendigo Bank, NAB and Westpac). The cheapest provider for your business depends on your in-person versus online mix and your monthly turnover.
Do Australian payment providers charge a monthly fee?
Most no longer do: 9 of the 21 providers we analysed charge $0 per month. The monthly fee mainly survives on traditional bank terminal plans, which range from $19.00 to $29.50 a month.
What is least-cost routing and who offers it?
Least-cost routing automatically sends contactless debit transactions down the cheaper eftpos network instead of Visa or Mastercard, lowering your fees. In our dataset, 14 of 21 providers (67%) offer it; a third still do not.
