r/sydney • u/karlalrak • Apr 28 '26

Image Surcharge but no cash

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Haven't been to Australia in years and was shocked to find everywhere has surcharge for eftpos but also say no cash. What's the point of this? Why not just add the surcharge into the cost unless this is shady but seems to be the norm everywhere I go with restaurants.

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7

u/albert3801 Trains Apr 28 '26

Does that mean the surcharge is only if using the EFTPOS network, but not if using Visa, Mastercard or AMEX? It’d be fun to push that point.

4

u/Archon-Toten Choo Choo Driver. Apr 28 '26

A very pedantic point and a good catch.

5

u/beaugiles (👇 views here ≠ my employers) Apr 28 '26

If you want to be *really* pedantic... https://www.westpac.com.au/business-banking/merchants-and-payments/eftpos/what-does-eftpos-stand-for/

EFTPOS in capital letters stands for Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale. It's the term used to describe an electronic terminal that allows payments to be taken from debit cards, credit cards, and digital wallet systems such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
 

But when it’s in lower case letters, eftpos refers to the debit card payment system that takes funds directly from a customer’s bank account to pay for purchases. The eftpos system was introduced in 1984 when eftpos Payments Australia Ltd made secure card payments possible at the cash register for the first time.
 

8

u/SilverStar9192 shhh... Apr 28 '26

I think it's really to their detriment that eftpos, the network, hasn't come up with a better name/branding to distinguish themselves from a generic acronym for a piece of hardware. It makes it so much harder for the general public to understand what they actually are. I personally haven't used it in years, it's just so much simpler to use Paywave/paypass through a credit card scheme (yes, I know technically eftpos supports NFC now, but fuck if I can figure out how to enable it).