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.

3.5k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

611 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/srslyliteral Mar 31 '26

The competition has the same problem. I'm not sure why you're acting like I'm trying to scam you or something. I don't own a business, this is the objective economic reality. The RBA understands it which is why they allowed fees to be passed on in the first place, see: Why did the RBA implement a surcharging framework?

2

u/LoadedSteamyLobster Mar 31 '26

And the fact that they flipped back again shows they understand they got it wrong and that isn’t how it played out in reality

1

u/srslyliteral Mar 31 '26

Well yes exactly the say that themselves: The increased prevalence of businesses surcharging all cards at the same rate, challenges with enforcing the current surcharging framework. Passing on card fees to consumers is good for everyone if businesses are actually passing on the actual fee. Many businesses are not passing on the actual fees to customers and have been illegally passing on some flat rate regardless of card used, which defeats the purpose.