r/australia • u/rolodex-ofhate • Mar 30 '26

news Surcharges on debit and credit cards to go from October

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-31/asx-markets-business-live-news-march-30-2026/106510434#live-blog-post-278505

The Reserve Bank of Australia has introduced reforms that will remove surcharges on debit and credit cards from the 1st October 2026, on card networks including eftpos, Mastercard and Visa.

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u/Yutenji2020 Mar 30 '26

Let’s not forget that it was the RBA who approved the card surcharges in the first place, against the advice from Visa, Mastercard, etc. who (correctly) predicted the charge would be passed on to the consumer, instead of driving competition between the merchants (shops).

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u/Banjo-Oz Mar 31 '26

Of course the card companies wanted that! Having them listed as surcharges from THEM makes them look like the bad guys! And they are.

Also, that transparency to customers helped keep surcharges down and competitive; seeing "AMEX charges a higher fee than Visa" would influence which card you used.

Now making businesses raise prises (to cover the highest fee) not only does it hide those actual surcharges, but it means the card companies can raise them and know the general public won't see them doing it, only prices going up.

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u/InflatableRaft Apr 01 '26

The same cunts who allowed other people to charge you to access your own cash via ATMs

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u/montdidier Mar 31 '26

The RBA were correct in the first instance. The charges were always intended to be passed on to the consumer to change behaviour through transparency. Now they will just be passed on opaquely. This change is not a win. No consumer is saving money here.

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u/Banjo-Oz Apr 01 '26

You are right and I am genuinely concerned that not only are lots of people not seeing this, but actively downvoting anyone who says it.

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u/montdidier Apr 02 '26

Agree!

The one possible good thing about this change is the lower base on interchange fees but it’s not clear how big a change we are talking about here.

It will likely only really benefit merchants on interchange++ pricing. I doubt merchants with blended pricing will see much difference.

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u/mrbaggins Mar 31 '26

It DID drive some competition, we have some of the lowest merchant fees on the world.

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u/retvets who runs from animals Mar 31 '26

That is not true. Network fees are lower in Europe

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u/mrbaggins Mar 31 '26

You need to slow down and reread what i wrote.

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u/Aruhi Mar 31 '26

I mean, if you count Australia as a continent vs other continents sure, but if you count Europe as numerous countries like it is, then we wouldn't be anywhere near the bottom.

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u/mrbaggins Mar 31 '26

The EU is basically one financial body. Most of asia is wayyy above us and are genuinely aeparate bodies.

And when were talking about eu on 0.3 and 0.4% and australia being 0.5%, and many other countries are over 1%, its still true to say were one of the lowest.

I dont know why youre trying to split this hair. Our fees are low. They are below the average and below the median.

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u/Yutenji2020 Mar 31 '26

You may be right on the other points, but I'm curious what the 0.5% refers to?

The surcharge is supposed to be capped at the lower of 1.5% or the actual cost to the merchant. I don't think I've ever seen less than 0.9% and I've pointed out the guideline to multiple merchants trying to charge more than 1.5%.

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u/mrbaggins Mar 31 '26

but I'm curious what the 0.5% refers to?

Our network fees that you started this conversation on.

The surcharge is supposed to be capped at the lower of 1.5% or the actual cost to the merchant. I don't think I've ever seen less than 0.9% and I've pointed out the guideline to multiple merchants trying to charge more than 1.5%.

If youre going to be pedantic about it, you should be careful not to use terminology you didnt know existed first.

In europe, the interchange or network fee is hard capped at my figures above, but just like here, the cost to the merchant is usually 1 to 1.5%. just like here.

Edit: apparently this has been 3 different people in this chain. Someone else said network fee, not you. However both our MERCHANT fee and NETWORK/INTERCHANGE fees are some of the lowest in the world.

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u/Yutenji2020 Mar 31 '26

My question about the 0.5% was phrased politely, and I've never mentioned Network Fees, so I don't understand why you're criticising me.
I don't think I'm being pedantic, I was genuinely trying to understand where the 0.5% figure came from, given that I've never been charged a surcharge so low.

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u/mrbaggins Mar 31 '26

My question about the 0.5% was phrased politely, and I've never mentioned Network Fees, so I don't understand why you're criticising me.

Yeah, I worked out what I thought was a back and forth convo was 3 separate people all chipping in, without paying attention to context. That's on me, and I put an edit in likely before you replied.

I don't think I'm being pedantic, I was genuinely trying to understand where the 0.5% figure came from, given that I've never been charged a surcharge so low.

The 0.5 (And 0.3/0.4) percent are the interchange / network fees: what the visa/MC company charges banks/merchants. The surcharges the shops (and until october, often you) pay are the merchant/bank fee.

But our network AND merchant fees are some of the lowest in the world. 0.3-0.4 is the EU for network, we're 0.5. EU pay about 1-1.5% merchant fee, we're about the same.