The Reserve Bank of Australia confirmed the ban in March 2026. Here is what changes, which businesses are most affected, and what to do before 1 October.
The Reserve Bank of Australia confirmed in March 2026 that card payment surcharges will be fully banned from 1 October 2026. This is a complete prohibition — not a cap — applying to all card types: debit, prepaid, and credit across eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa. Merchants who currently recover EFTPOS costs by surcharing customers must absorb those fees directly from 1 October 2026.
The businesses with the largest exposure to the October 2026 ban are those that currently rely on surcharging to recover EFTPOS costs:
Businesses with lower rates, no lock-in, and acquirer-agnostic providers are best positioned for October 2026.
1. Review your current transaction rate. Whatever you pay per transaction becomes a direct business cost from October. A 1.6% rate (Square) that was previously surcharged is now 1.6% off your margin. Negotiating a lower rate now — before October — reduces that impact.
2. Check your contract for lock-in. If you're mid-contract with a high-rate provider, review your exit terms now. Tyro's 12-month agreements include exit fees equivalent to remaining months. UrPay has no lock-in — you can switch without exit fees.
3. Update your POS and receipt templates. Remove surcharge line items from POS configuration, receipts, and any customer-facing pricing that references a card surcharge.
4. Review Amex acceptance. If your Amex acceptance cost is 2%+, consider whether the customer base justifies absorbing that cost post-ban, or whether to redirect to Mastercard/Visa.
5. Update customer communications. If you've previously communicated a surcharge to customers (signage, menus, online), update those materials before October.
Yes. The ban covers all card types including debit, prepaid, and credit cards across all major networks: eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa. There are no exemptions by card type from 1 October 2026.
Surcharging after the ban constitutes a breach of the RBA's payment system standards. The ACCC currently enforces excessive surcharging rules; a similar enforcement framework is expected post-ban. Merchants, acquiring banks, and payment facilitators are all responsible for compliance.
Partially. The RBA reduced interchange fee caps simultaneously with the ban. Debit card interchange drops from 0.20% to 0.16% per transaction. For merchants with acquirer-agnostic providers that pass through interchange reductions directly (like UrPay), the lower interchange partially offsets the cost of absorbing fees. For merchants locked into fixed published rates, the interchange reduction may not flow through.
UrPay's negotiated rates from 1.3% — combined with acquirer-agnostic architecture that passes through interchange reductions — mean your EFTPOS cost as a direct margin item is as low as it can be. No lock-in means you can switch before October without exit fees. And as interchange caps move post-October, UrPay's multi-acquirer structure means you benefit from those changes automatically.
Every week closer to 1 October without a lower rate is a week of future margin exposure. UrPay's negotiated rates from 1.3% — confirmed in one business day — are the starting point for a cost-effective post-surcharge operation. No lock-in means no risk.