No more surcharges: what it means for your fees and your clients’ margins

Since 1 October 2026, businesses in Australia can’t add a surcharge to EFTPOS, Visa or Mastercard payments. The Reserve Bank has also cut the caps on domestic interchange fees. Caps on foreign-issued cards follow on 1 April 2027.

The RBA expects the lower caps to save businesses around $660 million a year. Even so, for most small businesses the card fee is now a cost they wear rather than pass on.

That puts the issue on two desks in your firm: billing, and client advisory.

Many practices added a card fee to client invoices or monthly subscriptions. That line now has to go.

The quickest check is a search. Look through invoice templates, payment links, your practice management system and engagement letters for any surcharge wording, and remove it.

Then look at the cost. A firm collecting $800,000 a year by card at 1.4% now absorbs about $11,200 that used to sit with clients. You can cover it with a small fee review, or move recurring fees onto cheaper channels such as direct debit, bank transfer or PayID. Most firms will do some of both.

The clients who feel this most share three traits: lots of card payments, slim margins and a habit of surcharging.

Think of a physio clinic billing 40 appointments a day, or a trades business taking card payments on site for every job. Until last month, the surcharge covered their card costs. Now that cost comes straight out of profit.

For those clients, three numbers make the conversation concrete:

• Card volume: how much they took by card over the last quarter

• Effective rate: total merchant fees divided by card volume, which is often higher than the advertised rate once terminal rental and plan fees are included

• Margin impact: what that cost does to gross profit once it can’t be passed on

Those three numbers usually lead to one of three moves: lift prices slightly, negotiate a better merchant plan, or steer regular customers toward cheaper ways to pay.

Cards will stay the default at the counter. For repeat or invoiced payments, there are cheaper options.

PayID lets a customer pay straight from their banking app using a business’s phone number or email, with funds arriving in seconds. Direct debit suits recurring fees, such as memberships or monthly service plans. Bank transfer still works for larger invoices where speed matters less.

The best fit depends on the client. A gym with members on monthly plans has more room to move than a café serving walk-in customers.

Most business owners have never worked out what it really costs them to get paid. The surcharge ban gives you a reason to raise it now, while the change is fresh.

A short fee review, done with clients’ own merchant statements, turns a rule change into useful advice. It also helps your firm get its own billing in order.