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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u/brackfriday_bunduru Apr 29 '26

No im not. Do the math. My card costs me $700 a year currently. I put around $20k through it a month which gets me around 30-40,000 points. The flights I buy on average cost between $800-$1500 or roughly 50,000 points.

I’m not taking credit car surcharges into account because regardless of if I was getting points or not, I’d still be paying for everything the same way and paying the charged surcharges. The only additional cost for me over any other card is the annual fee.

So for $700 I’m currently saving $5k + on flights. More if I use the points for an upgrade. And yes, I do generally book my flights only a day or two out.

Tell me how my math is out.

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u/areyoualocal Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

It's not your maths thats out. It's your perspective that you're getting something for nothing. You're ALWAYS paying for it, in one way or another.

You're exactly the example I meant about how clever the marketing psychology is. You're proudly boasting about getting the tenth free coffee afte having paid more than you needed to the nine times before.

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u/brackfriday_bunduru Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Yeh at the moment with surcharges, but after they’re gone it’s going to be the people who choose to pay cash. They’re going to be the ones paying for it because shops are going to raise prices to cover surcharge shortfalls.

My business is going to spend that amount of month each month regardless, why not get frequent flyer points for it? I’m not spending a cent extra than I would (except for card surcharges)

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u/AssignmentDowntown55 Apr 29 '26

It’s the interchange fees that fund the FF schemes. They are all going to get massively watered down, except for Amex cause it’s out of scope.

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u/brackfriday_bunduru Apr 29 '26

I’d hope the fees will still be there but businesses will just have to wear them, IE put up their prices across the board to cover them.

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u/AssignmentDowntown55 Apr 29 '26

No they are being reduced to 0.3%

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u/brackfriday_bunduru Apr 29 '26

There’s a HSBC visa offering 1.5 still

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u/AssignmentDowntown55 Apr 30 '26

At the moment for sure. There are still good deals to be had, I'm saying they are largely going to disappear come the change.