RBA Card Surcharge Ban: What It Means for Your Small Business From 1 October 2026
Reading time: 4 minutes | Topic: Business Advisory
From 1 October 2026, Australian businesses will no longer be able to add a surcharge to card payments made via eftpos, Visa, Mastercard or Amex. The Reserve Bank of Australia is removing the ability for merchants to pass card processing costs directly on to customers, enforced through the card networks themselves.
For most small businesses particularly those with high transaction volumes and tight margins this will directly affect pricing, cash flow and profitability. This article outlines what's changing, what it could cost your business, and what to do before the deadline.
What's Changing
Surcharges on eftpos, Visa, Mastercard and Amex card payments will be banned from 1 October 2026.
The RBA is also reducing interchange fee caps, which should lower some of the underlying cost businesses pay to accept cards.
Card networks and larger payment providers will be required to publish fee information, making it easier for merchants to compare and negotiate.
Why This Matters
For most small businesses, a card surcharge isn't extra profit it's a way of recovering fees already charged by banks and payment providers, including terminal fees, gateway charges and transaction percentages. Once the ban takes effect, that cost doesn't go away. It either gets absorbed into the business, or built into pricing.
Businesses that process a high volume of card transactions such as cafés, restaurants, salons, retail stores and trades are likely to feel this most, simply because the fees apply across a large number of small sales each week.
A Worked Example: What Could This Cost You?
To put this in real terms, here's an illustrative example for two common small business types. These figures are simplified for illustration and your actual numbers will depend on your provider, card mix and transaction volume.
Café business example
A café doing $400,000 a year in card sales, currently recovering roughly 1.5% through surcharging, is collecting around $6,000 a year from customers to cover card costs. From 1 October, if that fee isn't built into pricing, the café absorbs that $6,000 directly forming a meaningful dent for a business often running on single-digit margins.
Salon business example
A hairdressing salon processing $250,000 a year in card payments, currently surcharging at around 1.5–1.8%, is typically recovering somewhere between $3,750 and $4,500 a year. Without a surcharge, that amount either comes out of the salon's margin or needs to be reflected in service pricing. For example, an extra 50c–$1 built into the price of an average appointment, rather than added at checkout.
The interchange fee reductions the RBA is introducing may offset part of this for some businesses, but they're unlikely to cover the full amount for most. The right response depends on your actual transaction volume, average sale size and current merchant fees which is why reviewing your own numbers matters more than relying on general estimates.
What Small Business Owners Should Do Now
Review your current merchant costs. Get a clear picture of what you actually pay across terminal fees, gateway charges and processing percentages.
Decide how you'll recover the cost, if at all. Options include building it into your pricing, absorbing it in exchange for faster payments and less admin, or shifting more customers toward lower-cost payment methods like bank transfer and cash payments.
Update every surcharge touchpoint. EFTPOS terminals, online checkout, invoicing software and booking systems, rather than assuming one setting covers everything.
Forecast the cash flow impact before making pricing changes, so any adjustment is planned rather than reactive.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Making sudden, unexplained price increases close to the deadline, which can affect customer trust and competitiveness.
Absorbing the cost without monitoring margins afterwards.
Overlooking software or POS updates needed to remove surcharge settings correctly.
Talk to Us Before You Decide
The right approach depends on your margins, your transaction volume and your customers, there's no single answer that fits every business. If you'd like help working out exactly what the surcharge ban means for your numbers, get in touch with our team so we can plan the change together.
