EFTPOS and card payments for cafes & restaurants

What does a café pay to take card payments in Australia in 2026?

It depends on your provider's rate and your monthly card turnover. Here is the monthly processing cost at each published in-person rate Compayr tracks.

Published rates including GST, as checked on the Pass Through Tracker (last checked 3 November 2026). Temporary promotional rates and fees are excluded. Rates shown are the standard ongoing rate for each provider, as at that date. Terminal rental and monthly fees are extra and shown on the comparison. Some rates apply to eligible customers only, and Amex may be priced separately. Zeller POS at 1.2% applies only when Zeller POS is used with a Zeller Terminal.

At $50,000 a month the gap between the lowest and highest published rate is $405 a month, or $4,860 a year.

Why are my card fees higher since 1 October?

Most cafés surcharged before the ban. The Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association says 81% of restaurant and café owners passed on some form of surcharge. That surcharge used to cover the card fee. Since 1 October it can't. So the fee you used to recover is now a cost.

Wholesale card costs fell on the same day. The cap on consumer credit interchange dropped from 0.8% to 0.3%. That only reaches you if your provider cut its rate. Check yours on the Pass Through Tracker.

What does a $6 coffee cost to take by card?

On a small sale, a fixed fee per transaction matters more than the percentage.

• At 1.6%, a $6 coffee costs 9.6 cents.
• At 0.79%, it costs 4.7 cents.
• At 1.65% plus 10 cents, it costs 19.9 cents.

If you sell lots of coffees, check whether your plan has a per-transaction fee. At 3,000 coffees a month, 10 cents a sale is $300.

How can my café pay less for card payments?

Work out your effective rate, compare it with the rates above, ask your provider to match a lower one and turn on least-cost routing. Find your card acceptance costs with our calculator.

Should I raise my prices instead?

Some cafés have. The Small Flat White surcharge tracker found 20% of cafés raised their flat white price in October, typically by 50 cents. Work out what the end of surcharging costs you with the surcharge ban calculator, then decide how much belongs in your prices. Get your card cost down first.