20th August 2026

From 1 October 2026, retailers will no longer be able to add a card surcharge when customers pay using eftpos, Visa, Mastercard or American Express cards. This applies to debit and credit cards (and prepaid cards where applicable), whether customers pay in-store or online.

In other words, if a product is advertised at $1,000, a retailer will no longer be able to charge $1,010 simply because the customer chooses to pay with one of these cards. Retailers can, of course, set their overall prices to take account of payment-processing costs along with their other business costs.

The change is being implemented through new RBA standards allowing eftpos, Visa and Mastercard to prohibit surcharging through their scheme rules and merchant agreements. American Express is not covered by the RBA’s designated-card standards, but Amex has separately decided to prohibit surcharging from 1 October, so the practical result for retailers is the same.

Other payment methods, such as PayPal and BPAY, are not covered by these card-surcharging changes, although other pricing and consumer-law requirements may still apply. The changes also do not prevent businesses from offering discounts for particular payment methods, and do not affect other types of charges such as weekend or public-holiday surcharges.

Read more from the ACCC and see the RBA’s FAQs for businesses.

Small business concerns

The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), of which the Australian Music Association is a member, has been actively advocating on the impact of these changes on small businesses. While welcoming measures to reduce interchange fees and improve transparency, COSBOA has argued that removing card surcharging before businesses can be confident that lower payment costs will actually flow through to them risks simply shifting the cost onto small businesses.

COSBOA has called for real reductions in merchant costs and clearer pricing so businesses can compare payment providers. It has also highlighted the need for businesses to have time to understand their new costs, review their pricing and shop around before the change takes effect.

Read COSBOA’s response to the RBA decision.

ArtsPay

The AMA partners with ArtsPay to provide lower-cost merchant payments to members, with the added benefit of supporting the arts through the ArtsPay Foundation.

ArtsPay has produced a practical explainer outlining the different parts of the RBA’s reforms, what they mean for businesses and what merchants may need to do before 1 October. This includes information on card surcharges, reduced interchange fees, payment-fee transparency and least-cost routing.

Read ArtsPay’s explainer.

Read more about the AMA–ArtsPay member benefit.