Credit Card Surcharge Ban Calculator (Australia)

Card surcharges on eftpos, Visa, and Mastercard have been banned across Australia since 1 October 2026. Foreign card interchange caps follow on 1 April 2027.

eftpos, Visa, and Mastercard apply no-surcharge rules to their debit, prepaid, and credit cards. American Express, UnionPay, and PayPal are not regulated by the RBA in the same way, but the RBA reports that all three have also removed surcharging (PayPal from 5 October 2026). Weekend, public holiday, and booking fees are not affected.

No. American Express sits outside the RBA regulation, but the RBA reports that it removed surcharging from 1 October 2026, and UnionPay and PayPal have done the same. Most large payment providers also switched surcharging off on their terminals by that date.

It depends on how much you used to pass to customers. Your absorbed cost is roughly your monthly card volume times the share you surcharge times your surcharge rate. Use the calculator above to see your annual figure.

Interchange caps also dropped on 1 October 2026: consumer credit from 0.8% to 0.3% and debit from 0.2% to 0.16%. The RBA estimates this cuts wholesale card payment costs for merchants by about $910 million a year, but a flat rate only falls if your provider cuts it. Westpac, CommBank, NAB and Stripe had cut a published rate by 1 October; with other providers you may need to ask, or switch, to see the benefit.

Least-cost routing sends contactless debit payments through the cheaper network, usually eftpos rather than Visa or Mastercard. It can noticeably reduce your debit fees. Ask your provider whether it is switched on for your terminal.

If you used to surcharge, absorbing those fees makes your provider rate matter a lot more now. The comparison table shows what each provider would cost at your volume.

It will breach your card network rules and your merchant agreement, which the card networks and your payment provider enforce, not the ACCC. Most large providers removed the surcharging function from their terminals by 1 October 2026. The ACCC still enforces consumer law, so any price change must not be described in a misleading way.

A surcharge is your transaction amount multiplied by your provider rate. On a $100 sale, a 1.5% surcharge is $1.50, a 2% surcharge is $2, a 2.9% surcharge is $2.90, and a 3.5% surcharge is $3.50. If your provider also charges a fixed fee per transaction, add that on top. The calculator above works this out for your real volume and rate, and from 1 October 2026 it shows the cost your business absorbs once you can no longer pass the surcharge on.

The processing fee is what your payment provider charges you to accept a card, usually a percentage of each sale plus sometimes a fixed fee per transaction. A surcharge is when you pass that cost on to the customer at the checkout. They are the same underlying cost seen from two sides. From 1 October 2026 you can no longer surcharge eftpos, Visa or Mastercard, so the processing fee becomes a cost your business absorbs, which is why a lower provider rate matters more. The calculator above shows both your processing cost and what you will absorb.