Since 1 October 2026, a business in Australia cannot add a surcharge when a customer pays with an eftpos, Mastercard or Visa card: debit, credit or prepaid, personal or business, in person or online. American Express, JCB and UnionPay ended surcharges the same day, and PayPal follows on 5 October. You can still build the cost of taking cards into your prices, or offer a discount for paying another way, such as PayID or a bank transfer.
What changed on 1 October 2026?
Until 30 September 2026 you could surcharge a card payment, provided the surcharge did not exceed your cost of acceptance for that card type, and the ACCC could act against a business that charged more. On 1 October 2026 both the permission and the ACCC's rules on excessive surcharges ended.
The Reserve Bank of Australia finished its review of card payment costs in March 2026 and decided card surcharging should end. It did that by lifting a restriction of its own: from 1 October 2026 the card networks may ban surcharges. eftpos, Mastercard and Visa each introduced no-surcharge rules from that day, and American Express, JCB and UnionPay ended surcharging on their cards the same day.
The rules reach you through your agreement with your bank or payment provider, and it is the card networks and providers that enforce them, not the ACCC. A business that keeps surcharging may be contacted by its provider, and penalties may apply. If surcharging carries on regardless, the RBA has said it could ask the Government to legislate a ban.
On the same day the RBA cut the interchange caps. On credit cards issued to individuals in Australia the cap fell from 0.8% to 0.3% of the transaction. On debit and prepaid cards, business debit cards included, it fell from 10 cents or 0.2% to 8 cents or 0.16%, depending on how the fee is charged. Business credit cards stay at 0.8%. Interchange, the fee the customer's bank earns on each card payment, makes up part of what you pay your provider, so the cost of accepting cards should fall, if your provider passes the cut on.
Which dates come next?
- 5 October 2026: PayPal's no-surcharge rule starts.
- 30 October 2026: the card networks and large payment providers start publishing their fees, so you can compare what cards cost you.
- 30 November 2026: the last day the ATO accepts a credit card. After it, pay your BAS, instalments and income tax another way.
- 30 January 2027: large providers start publishing how much of the interchange cut they have passed on.
- 1 April 2027: interchange caps start on cards issued overseas, and merchant statements have to show more detail.
What does the change cover?
The test is whether the extra amount exists because the customer chose to pay by card. If it does, it is covered. A fee you would charge whatever the payment method is not.
| Covered | Not covered |
|---|---|
| Debit, credit and prepaid cards on the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks | Fees charged whatever the payment method, such as a booking, delivery, call-out or service fee |
| Personal, business and corporate cards alike, and cards issued overseas | Time-based charges, such as a weekend or public holiday surcharge |
| American Express, JCB and UnionPay from the same day, and PayPal from 5 October | Payments that are not by card: bank transfer, PayID, PayTo, BPAY and cash |
| In person, online and in apps, including phone and watch wallets | What your payment provider charges you, such as terminal rental |
| A card payment through a link on an invoice, even one issued before 1 October | A surcharge a law expressly allows, such as some state-regulated taxi fares |
Buy now, pay later is not covered by these networks' rules, so check your provider's terms: the RBA notes that some buy now, pay later products already ban surcharges. Payments that are not by card are outside the surcharge rules altogether. Whatever the payment type, the general consumer law applies to any fee: it has to be disclosed up front, and it must not mislead.
Can you call it something else?
No. A fee that appears only when someone pays by card is a card surcharge, whatever the invoice calls it, and the ACCC has said that describing a card surcharge as some other kind of fee may be misleading conduct.
Two things are still yours to decide, with conditions:
- Your prices. You can raise them to cover what cards cost you. You cannot say or imply that the surcharge change caused an increase that other costs drove.
- Discounts for paying another way. The RBA has said ending surcharges is not meant to stop discounts for particular payment methods, and the ACCC's own examples are a discount for paying by cash or PayID. The ACCC's conditions: the full price is the price you display, the discount is disclosed before the customer books, orders or pays, and the discounted price is never shown on its own or more prominently than the full price.
What can you do instead?
- Build the cost into your prices. On most work that is simpler than any fee, and it is now what the rules expect.
- Make the cheapest way to pay the easiest. A bank transfer straight into your account usually costs little or nothing, depending on your account's fees. Put your BSB and account number on every invoice, ahead of the card option.
- Offer a discount for paying that way, if the saving is worth passing on: the full price on the quote and the invoice, with the discount shown beside it before the customer pays.
- Check what cards now cost you. Ask your provider whether the interchange cut has reached your rate, and whether least-cost routing is on for debit cards tapped in person. From 30 October 2026 the networks and large providers publish their fees, which makes comparing easier.
Balaana's payment collection puts your bank details on every invoice beside the card and PayID options, so the cheapest way to pay you is always there.
What should a sole trader change this week?
- Switch surcharging off wherever you take a card: your terminal, online checkout, invoice payment links, booking or shop plugins, and subscriptions. Then make a test payment to check nothing is added.
- Check unpaid invoices. An invoice issued before 1 October that says a surcharge applies to card payments cannot collect it now. Make sure its payment link does not add one.
- Remove surcharge wording from invoice and quote templates, payment terms, your website, email footers, signs and receipts: lines such as "a 1.5% surcharge applies to card payments".
- Do not rename the fee. A processing or platform fee charged only on card payments is still a card surcharge.
- Tell regular clients if your prices change, with the real reason. If other costs went up too, do not blame the ban.
- Pay the ATO another way before 30 November 2026 if you pay it by credit card, including any payment plan linked to the card.
How does a payment discount affect GST?
A discount lowers the price, and the GST falls with it, because the GST on a taxable sale is one eleventh of what the customer actually pays. A $110 sale paid by bank transfer with a $2.20 discount is a $107.80 sale, and the GST on it is $9.80.
If the customer takes the discount after you have issued a tax invoice for the full price, the price has changed after the fact. For GST that is an adjustment, the same mechanism as a credit note, and the ATO does not require an adjustment note when the GST adjustment is $75 or less. See how to invoice with GST, and the GST calculator if you want to check a figure.
Related reading
- Payment collection: card, PayID and bank transfer on every invoice
- How to get paid on time: the wider getting-paid problem
- What is an invoice?: what one has to show
- Hourly rate calculator: for pricing the cost of cards in
Frequently asked questions
No, not on eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, American Express, JCB or UnionPay card payments since 1 October 2026, or on PayPal payments from 5 October, whether the card is debit, credit or prepaid, personal or business, and whether the customer pays in person or online. Until 30 September 2026 a surcharge was allowed up to your cost of acceptance for that card type.
It breaks the rules you agreed to rather than a specific law. Since 1 October 2026 the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa rules ban surcharges on debit cards, as on every other card, and your payment provider enforces them through your merchant agreement. A business that keeps surcharging may be contacted by its provider, and penalties may apply. Calling the fee something else can also be misleading conduct under the consumer law.
Not as an extra charge for paying by card. Since 1 October 2026 the size of the fee no longer matters: any amount added because the customer pays by card is a surcharge, and the networks' rules ban it. A fee you charge however the customer pays, such as a call-out fee, is a separate matter, as long as you disclose it up front.
Yes, with conditions. The RBA has said ending surcharges is not meant to stop discounts for particular payment methods, and the ACCC's own examples are discounts for paying by cash or PayID. The full price has to be the price you display, the discount has to be disclosed before the customer books, orders or pays, and the discounted price must never be shown on its own or more prominently than the full price.
Not if it only applies to card payments. A fee charged because the customer paid by card is a card surcharge whatever it is called, and the ACCC has said describing a card surcharge as some other kind of fee may be misleading conduct. A fee that applies however the customer pays, such as a call-out fee, is a separate matter and just has to be disclosed up front.
Yes. You set your prices, and building the cost of accepting cards into them is exactly what the change expects. What you must not do is mislead customers about why prices went up, for example by blaming the surcharge change for an increase driven by other costs.
Yes. What counts is when the card payment is made. If a client pays by card on or after 1 October 2026, no surcharge can be added, even if the invoice was issued earlier and says one applies.
Yes. The networks’ rules cover business and corporate cards as well as personal ones, and payments between businesses get no exemption. The cut to credit card interchange on 1 October 2026 applied only to cards issued to individuals, though, so a company credit card may still cost you more to accept than a personal one.
It lowers it. GST is one eleventh of what the customer pays for a taxable sale, so a discount reduces the price and the GST together. If the discount is taken after you have issued a tax invoice for the full amount, record the change as an adjustment, the same way you would a credit note. The ATO does not require an adjustment note when the GST adjustment is $75 or less.
Sources
The end of surcharging comes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's review of card payment costs and from the card networks' rules, which the industry explains at cardsurcharge.com.au; guidance on fees, discounts and pricing from the ACCC; the end of credit card payments from the ATO's announcement, and GST treatment from its guidance on adjustment notes. All were read on 2 October 2026. Card network rules and provider terms can change, so confirm the current position with those sources and your payment provider. Balaana is bookkeeping software, not a tax agent or legal adviser. This article is general information, not advice about your situation.