From October 1, you can’t add a card surcharge to a payment. The RBA announced it back in March. Most businesses I talk to know it’s coming. Almost none have checked the numbers yet.
You have three weeks. Here’s what needs to happen.
Work out what you’re actually losing
Card surcharges end on October 1, 2026. The ban covers eftpos, Mastercard and Visa. American Express has also decided to remove surcharging from October 1.
If you’re passing on 1.5% on every card payment and 80% of your customers pay by card, this is real money. Pull three months of transaction reports from your EFTPOS provider. Add up total card surcharge revenue. Divide by three. That’s what you’re about to lose every month.
Merchant card fees are expected to fall. For consumer credit cards, the interchange cap drops from 0.8% to 0.3%. Debit card limits fall from 0.2% to 0.16%. That will offset some of it, but how much depends on your payment provider and your pricing plan. Ask them what your new effective rate will be from October 1. Compare what you lose in surcharges to what you save in fees. If there’s a gap, you need to close it.
Decide now, not on September 30
You have two options. Absorb the cost or build it into your prices.
Most cafes and restaurants I work with are lifting menu prices by 1% to 1.5% in the next fortnight. It’s easier to do it now while people still understand why than to try and explain it six months from now. One plumber is holding prices but dropping his call-out minimum from $150 to $140. A physio practice is keeping consult fees the same but rolling the old surcharge into the baseline price and rounding.
Whatever you decide, do it before the last week of September. That’s when you need to be updating your point of sale system, your website checkout, your Xero invoice templates, your paper invoices, your menu boards, and any signage that mentions a surcharge.
It’s easier to do it now while people still understand why than to try and explain it six months from now.
Update everything that shows a price
Weekend and public holiday surcharges are not affected by this change. You can still charge extra on a Sunday. This is only about card payment surcharges.
Three weeks is enough, but only if you start this week
Until October 1, the current surcharge rules still apply. After that, you can’t charge a card fee. The businesses that will struggle are the ones that wait until September 28 and realise their menu boards are printed, their POS hasn’t been updated, and they haven’t told their staff.
The change is simple. The work is not. Start now.
Prompted by Square Australia.