Four Australian payment providers had cut a published merchant rate when we re-read their pricing on 1 October 2026: Westpac, Commonwealth Bank (CommBank), National Australia Bank (NAB) and Stripe. Shift4, formerly Smartpay, changed its pricing model instead. We re-read the pricing pages of all 21 Australian payment providers we list on 1 October, with follow-ups on 2 October, and those four were the only ones whose published rate moved. Many providers, including ANZ, publish no rate at all and quote each merchant privately, so if yours is one of them, your October statement is the only place a change will show.
Until 30 September a merchant could pass the fee to the customer. Since 1 October that option is gone on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa (what the ban covers), so the rate comes straight out of margin. To put a figure on what the ban itself costs you, use the surcharge ban calculator.
How we checked: on 1 October 2026, and again on 2 October, we read the pricing page of every Australian payment provider we list and recorded each published rate that had moved. The 1 October read is the same dataset behind our State of Payment Providers report for Q3 2026. Last checked 2 October 2026.
Are merchant fees being removed after the surcharge ban?
No. The ban changes who pays the fee, not whether it exists. COSBOA chief executive Skye Cappuccio said in September that "there is no such thing as a cost that simply disappears" (Mirage News). The fee that used to sit on the receipt now sits inside the merchant's price, at whatever rate the bank or payment company charges. To see how much of it you now absorb, run your own sales through the surcharge ban calculator.
What did change on 1 October 2026 is one layer underneath. Interchange is the wholesale fee the customer's card issuer collects from your payment provider on each transaction. The Reserve Bank cut the caps on it: consumer credit interchange is now capped at 0.3% of the transaction value, and the debit and prepaid cap fell from 0.20% (10 cents) to 0.16% (8 cents) (RBA conclusions paper). The RBA estimates the lower caps cut merchants' wholesale card costs by around $910 million a year, and that consumers were paying $1.6 billion of the $1.8 billion in card surcharges charged each year on the designated networks (RBA conclusions paper). Two limits apply: the commercial credit card cap is unchanged at 0.8%, so a business selling mostly on company cards gets less of the benefit, and the caps on foreign-issued cards do not arrive until 1 April 2027.
The $910 million is wholesale. It lands on what your provider pays the card issuer, not on what you pay your provider. Your merchant rate is a price your provider sets, and on a flat-rate plan it moves only when the provider moves it. The Conversation puts the typical small-business cost at about 1.4% of each sale against about 0.6% for large merchants (The Conversation). So the useful question is whether your provider passed the cut on. Four had cut their published rate by the first day.
Which banks and providers cut merchant fees on 1 October?
Westpac, CommBank and Stripe cut a published merchant rate on 1 October 2026, and NAB's pricing pages showed lower rates when we re-read them that day. The "Before" column is the rate recorded in our database before 1 October; "Now" reads from our live database, so it keeps up if a provider moves again.
| Provider | Before 1 Oct | Now | Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westpac | 1.20% | 0.79% | EFTPOS terminals |
| Westpac | 1.40% | 1.25% | OnlinePay (online) |
| CommBank Smart | 1.10% | 0.99% | Smart terminals |
| NAB | 1.15% | 1.05% | EFTPOS terminals |
| NAB | 1.40% + $0.25 | 1.30% + $0.25 | NAB Gateway (online) |
| Stripe | 1.7% + $0.10 | 1.65% + $0.10 | Terminal (in person) |
| Stripe | 1.7% + $0.30 | 1.65% + $0.30 | Online, domestic cards |
Westpac announced on 23 September that it would cut its flat transaction rates for business customers (Westpac media release). Its merchant page now reads: "We're reducing the flat transaction rate from 1 October 2026, following recent RBA reforms. The new rate will be 0.79% for EFTPOS terminals and PayWay, and 1.25% for EFTPOS Air and OnlinePay." That wording puts the PayWay gateway in the cut. The same page says "For Westpac merchants already on the flat transaction rate, the updated rate will be automatically applied from 1 October" (Westpac merchants and payments), and the release says "The move is expected to save a typical small business $80 a month or nearly $1,000 a year", a figure it bases on "typical small business transaction volumes of around $20,000 per month". The release lists the reduced rate for "Visa, Mastercard, eftpos and UnionPay transactions"; Amex is not on that list.
CommBank announced on 31 August (CommBank newsroom). Its payments page now says: "The standard rate is now 0.99%. If you were previously on the 1.10% standard rate, your rate was automatically reduced from 1 October 2026." The eligible products are Smart Mini, Smart and Smart Integrated, and the "0.99% covers Mastercard, Visa, AMEX/JCB, eftpos, and UnionPay transactions", though "AMEX/JCB is subject to approval, available to eligible customers only" (CommBank payments). Angus Sullivan, Commonwealth Bank's head of retail sales and services, told AAP the change is "probably going to create some more price-based competition for merchant services" (AAP, via Yass Tribune).
NAB made no public announcement that we could find, and we could not confirm the date its rates changed, only that they were lower on 1 October than the rates we had recorded before. Its EFTPOS terminals page now shows "a straightforward 1.05% flat rate" covering "Visa, Mastercard, eftpos and UnionPay cards", and notes that "Simple Pricing may include Merchant Choice Routing automatically" (NAB EFTPOS terminals). The NAB Gateway page shows an online merchant service fee of 1.30% + $0.25 plus a monthly access fee (NAB Gateway). NAB's page on the reforms says: "We are currently reviewing the impact of these reforms on our pricing. If any pricing changes affect your business, we'll let you know in advance through our merchant communications" (NAB, RBA surcharging changes). Read the October statement rather than wait for a release.
Stripe cut its Australian published rates on 1 October 2026, from the 1.7% + $0.30 online and 1.7% + $0.10 in person we had recorded. Its pricing page now shows 1.65% + $0.30 for domestic cards online and 1.65% + $0.10 for Stripe Terminal in person (Stripe AU pricing).
Shift4, formerly Smartpay (provider page), changed its pricing model on 1 October rather than publishing a new rate. Its zero-cost and surcharge-funded plans ended, and those merchants moved to its Low-Cost EFTPOS plan, where "A minimum monthly fee of $100 + GST applies" (Shift4, zero-cost EFTPOS changes). The page says "Shift4 will remotely disable surcharging on payments terminals at the beginning of October." Shift4 publishes no transaction rate on that plan, so get the quote in writing.
Did Square, Zeller and Tyro change their fees?
Square, Zeller and Tyro published no merchant rate change on 1 October 2026. Each announced that surcharging would be switched off, which is a feature change, not a rate change. Square's own explanation covers why a flat rate did not have to move: "The scheme fees set by the card networks and your provider's margin aren't capped, and what you actually pay comes down to your agreement with your provider" (Square, 1 September). ANZ published no cut on its own pages either.
The RBA did not require providers to pass the cut on. What it requires is disclosure. From 30 October 2026 the designated card networks and large acquirers must begin publishing specified information about card payment fees, and from 30 January 2027 large acquirers must begin publishing how reductions in interchange fees have flowed through to merchant service fees (RBA FAQ).
Which bank has the lowest merchant fees? Every published rate compared
No single provider is cheapest for every business, because volume, average sale and card mix all change the answer. The ranking below covers every provider we list that publishes a flat in-person rate (9 of 21; the rest quote privately or do not take in-person payments). It reads straight from our database, so it reflects the 1 October cuts and any move since. It shows the percentage only: some providers also charge a fixed fee per transaction, which the table above and the comparison include.
| Provider | In-person rate (percentage) |
|---|---|
| 0.79% | |
| 0.99% | |
| 1.05% | |
| 1.30% | |
| 1.30% | |
| 1.40% | |
| 1.40% | |
| 1.60% | |
| 1.65% |
Online rates, monthly fees and hardware costs for the same providers are in the payment providers comparison, and our State of Payment Providers report for the third quarter of 2026 is the fixed record of where the market stood on 1 October.
Is least-cost routing worth switching on now?
Least-cost routing lowers your fee only on interchange-plus pricing; on a flat-rate plan the saving stays with your provider. Westpac and NAB call it Merchant Choice Routing. It sends a tap from a dual-network debit card down the cheaper of the two networks on the card. The saving is real, but who collects it depends on your plan.
On a flat-rate plan you pay the same percentage whichever network a tap goes through, so routing lowers what your provider pays the network and leaves your rate where it was. The saving stays with the provider, so routing alone will not lower your fee.
On interchange-plus or cost-plus pricing the network's fee is passed through at cost, so a cheaper route shows up as a lower fee on your statement. That is also where the 1 October interchange cut arrives without anyone deciding to pass it on. If you are on that kind of plan and routing is off, switch it on. On a flat rate the lever is the rate itself, and the questions below are how to pull it.
What to ask your provider this month
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Has my rate changed since 1 October, and what is it now? Westpac and CommBank say they applied the cut automatically; NAB says it tells merchants about pricing changes in advance. Get the figure in writing as a percentage plus any per-transaction cents, and ask whether it includes GST, the form the published rates take, so you can compare yours against them.
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Am I on a flat rate or interchange-plus? On interchange-plus the cut reached you on its own. On a flat rate it reached you only if your provider cut. Westpac, CommBank, NAB and Stripe cut a published rate.
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What rate applies to business and commercial cards? The commercial credit interchange cap did not move, so if your customers pay on company cards, your blended cost fell by less than the consumer headlines suggest. Ask whether commercial cards are priced separately, and at what rate.
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Is least-cost routing on, and who keeps the saving? On interchange-plus it should be on. On a flat rate, ask whether the rate you were quoted already assumes it.
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Where does Amex sit? Westpac's release lists its reduced rate for Visa, Mastercard, eftpos and UnionPay, not Amex; CommBank's single rate includes Amex and JCB subject to approval. Ask whether yours is inside the headline rate or priced on its own.
If the answers put your rate above the ranking, the published rates are your negotiating position, and the price-based competition CommBank's Angus Sullivan expects is the reason to use them. Check yours against every provider's live rate at your own volume. Before reaching for a cash or PayID discount instead, read our analysis of cash discounts after the surcharge ban, which has a calculator that prices that trade.
Frequently asked questions
Did my bank cut my merchant fee automatically?
If you are a Westpac merchant already on its flat transaction rate, or a CommBank merchant on the 1.10% standard rate for Smart Mini, Smart or Smart Integrated, yes: both banks say the new rate was applied from 1 October 2026 without you doing anything. NAB and Stripe showed lower rates on their pricing pages on 1 October; we found no public announcement from NAB, which says it tells merchants about pricing changes directly. For every other provider, assume nothing changed until your October statement says otherwise.
Does the cut apply to Amex?
It depends on the provider. CommBank says its single rate covers Amex and JCB, subject to approval and for eligible customers only. Westpac's release lists its reduced rate for Visa, Mastercard, eftpos and UnionPay transactions; Amex is not on that list.
Which bank has the lowest merchant fees now?
No single provider is cheapest for every business. Published flat in-person rates among the providers we list start at 0.79% and run to 1.65%. The ranking above orders every provider that publishes one by that rate, and the comparison adds online rates, monthly fees and hardware, with a calculator for your own volume, average sale and card mix.
Is it illegal to charge eftpos fees now?
A surcharge cannot be added to an eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payment from 1 October 2026, and Amex, UnionPay and PayPal (from 5 October 2026) have removed surcharging as well. The rules are in what the RBA surcharge ban means for your business.
Does least-cost routing save money on a flat rate?
Not on the rate you pay. On a flat-rate plan you pay the same percentage whichever network a debit tap goes through, so the routing saving stays with the provider. On interchange-plus pricing the cheaper route shows up on your statement, so switch it on.
When will I know if my provider passed the cut on?
Your October statement is the first evidence. After that the RBA's disclosure dates take over: fee information from the designated networks and large acquirers from 30 October 2026, pass-through reporting by large acquirers from 30 January 2027, and more detailed merchant statements from 1 April 2027.
