How we compare payment providers
We list 21 payment providers available to Australian businesses. Only 8 providers publish a rate we can cost from. The rest quote, which in this category is the norm rather than evasion: acquiring is priced on your industry, your turnover and your chargeback risk, so the number genuinely is specific to you.
We do not estimate what a quoting provider would charge. An invented rate on a page like this would be the most expensive kind of wrong, because a tenth of a percent on real card turnover is a material sum every month for the life of the contract.
Ranking is arithmetic on published rates at the volume and average transaction you enter. Commission never moves a provider, and we do not sell prominence.
What the October 2026 surcharge ban does to payment providers
From 1 October 2026, surcharging is banned in Australia on eftpos, Visa and Mastercard, debit and credit. Foreign card interchange caps follow on 1 April 2027.
If you currently pass the fee to your customers, this is the most important thing on this page, because it changes what you are buying. A merchant who surcharges is close to indifferent to the rate: the customer pays it. From October that fee lands on your margin instead, and the spread between the cheapest and dearest rate in the table above stops being an accounting detail and becomes real money out of your own pocket on every sale you make.
Two practical consequences. First, model your costs now as though you cannot surcharge, because shortly you cannot, and a provider chosen on the old assumption may be the wrong one. Second, the ban does not apply to American Express or other three-party schemes, so if Amex is a meaningful share of your takings its rate is still passable to the customer and still worth negotiating separately.
Rate against monthly fee, and where payment providers cross over
The pattern in Australia is consistent enough to be a rule: the banks charge a monthly fee and quote a lower percentage, the fintechs charge nothing monthly and quote a higher one.
Neither is cheaper in general. There is a crossover turnover below which the free-monthly fintech wins and above which the bank does, and it is usually lower than merchants expect, because the percentage applies to everything you sell while the monthly fee is fixed. The calculator on this page finds that point for your numbers rather than in the abstract, which is the only way the question has an answer.
The per-transaction fee is the third term and it decides small baskets. A flat few cents is irrelevant on a $200 invoice and brutal on a $4 coffee. Providers on the same percentage can be far apart for a cafe and identical for a plumber.
Least-cost routing, and why it is free money on payment providers
An Australian debit card carries two sets of rails: the international scheme, Visa or Mastercard, and the domestic eftpos network. Routing a contactless debit tap through eftpos is usually cheaper, and on a debit-heavy business the saving is real.
Providers supporting it are marked in the table. The important part is that it is frequently not enabled by default, so it is worth asking your provider directly rather than assuming that support means it is switched on for your account. This is one of the few genuinely free savings available in this category, and it is the one merchants most often do not know to ask for.
What you will actually pay with payment providers
Of the providers publishing an in-person rate: NAB is 1.15% with a monthly fee of $25/mo, Westpac 1.2% at $24.75/mo, Zeller 1.4% at Free, SumUp 1.4% at Free, Square 1.6% at Free, and Stripe 1.7% + $0.10 at Free.
Read those as pairs rather than as a league table. The two lowest rates on that list both carry a monthly fee, and the providers charging nothing monthly all sit higher on rate.
Everything else in the table quotes. For an enterprise acquirer that is genuine: interchange-plus pricing passes through the scheme's own cost and adds a margin, so the final number depends on your card mix and cannot be published as one figure.
Traps to avoid with payment providers
Comparing a blended rate with an interchange-plus quote. A single percentage and a "cost plus margin" quote are different pricing models, not different numbers. Blended is simpler and usually higher; interchange-plus is cheaper at scale and harder to predict.
Assuming least-cost routing is on. It saves real money on debit and is often opt-in.
Budgeting as though you can still surcharge after 1 October 2026.
Reading a free monthly fee as a cheap provider. Above the crossover turnover it is the more expensive option, and the crossover is lower than most merchants guess.
Ignoring the per-transaction fee on a low average sale. On small baskets it can exceed the percentage entirely.
Treating a quoted rate as final. In a category where most providers quote, the first number is an opening position, and turnover is the lever.