What is a card surcharge?
A card surcharge is the fee businesses pass on to customers to cover the cost of accepting card payments. In Australia, most merchants pay between 0.5% and 2% per transaction to their bank or payment provider — and many have been passing that cost directly on to the customer as a line item at checkout.
That little "1.5% card surcharge" notice you see taped to the counter? That is what the RBA is banning.
What does the RBA surcharge ban actually do?
The Reserve Bank of Australia's March 2026 Conclusions Paper confirmed that card surcharges will be prohibited from October 2026. Merchants will no longer be able to add a surcharge to card transactions.
What it does NOT do:
- It does not remove the underlying merchant fees
- It does not change what banks and card networks charge you
- It does not make card payments cheaper for your business
It simply means you can no longer pass that cost on to the customer. You absorb it.
A 1.5% fee on $10,000/month in card sales = $150/month. Every month. Whether you charge your customers or not.
How much are Australian merchants actually paying?
Fees vary by provider, card type, and transaction volume. Here is what most Australian merchants are paying per transaction in 2026.
| Payment method | Typical merchant fee |
|---|---|
| QwikPay | $0.00 |
| EFTPOS (bank) | 0.3% – 0.8% |
| Square | 1.6% |
| Visa / Mastercard | 1.2% – 1.8% |
| American Express | 1.8% – 2.5% |
| Afterpay | 5% – 6% |
Rates vary by provider, plan, and transaction volume. Current as of 2026. See our full merchant fees comparison for detailed breakdowns by provider.
So what do merchants do after October 2026?
Three options:
Absorb the fees — Reduce your margin every time a customer taps.
Raise your prices — Pass the cost on invisibly, hurting competitiveness.
Switch to a payment system with no fees — Remove the cost entirely.
Option 3 is what QwikPay was built for.
How QwikPay works differently
Instead of routing payments through Visa or Mastercard (which charge interchange fees to your bank, which charges them to you), QwikPay sends money directly from your customer's bank account to yours via Australia's NPP (New Payments Platform).
No card network. No interchange. No merchant fee.
For a full breakdown of what each provider charges, see our merchant fees comparison.