Merchant Knowledge Centre
Plain-English guides to the October 2026 payment reforms and what they mean for your card costs, from surcharging to switching providers.
How to read your merchant statement or payments bill
Your October payments bill arrives in early November. For most merchants it will look much like September's. The cost will not. Surcharging ended on 1 October. The fee did not change. Who pays it did. Three numbers off the bill tell you what you now absorb and whether your provider passed the interchange cut on.
Cutting card fees is an easy win for a small business
Cutting card fees changes nothing for customers and the saving repeats every month. At $30,000 a month in card sales it is worth about $2,620 a year.
How to pay less for card payments in Australia
Compare what each provider would cost at your turnover, see your lowest cost option and switch. Free, with no broker and no callback.
Merchant fees after the surcharge ban: guide for accountants
Card fees used to be passed to the customer at the counter. They are now an expense the business pays. For many small businesses, merchant fees are a new and growing line on the profit and loss.
AI told cafés to surcharge. Surcharging has been banned since 1 October.
Two AI tools told a café to add a surcharge, banned since 1 October. Copilot got 1 of 12 answers right. Google gave the same café two answers, minutes apart.
Which providers cut merchant fees after the 1 October interchange cut?
Westpac cut its card rate from 1.20% to 0.79% on 1 October 2026. 13 of the 20 card rates we track have not moved.
EFTPOS for cafés and restaurants: what card payments cost
What a café or restaurant pays to take card payments since the surcharge ban, at $20k, $30k and $50k a month, from each provider's published rate.
Your wholesale card costs fell on 1 October. Did your provider pass it on?
Wholesale card costs fell on 1 October. Whether it reached your business depends on whether you're on a flat rate or interchange-plus. Here's how to check.
The surcharge ban is here: what changed on 1 October
From 1 October 2026 you can no longer surcharge eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments. Here is a plain recap of what ends, what you can still charge, and the numbers behind the change.
CommBank cuts its flat merchant rate to 0.99%: what it means for you
From 1 October 2026, Commonwealth Bank is lowering its flat merchant service fee from 1.1% to 0.99%, timed with the surcharge ban. Here is what the change means and how to check where you stand.
After 1 October: what to change at the till, on receipts and in your signage
Surcharging ended on 1 October. The news told you that, but not what you physically need to change. Here is a plain checklist of the till, receipt and signage updates to check now.
Costs are rising everywhere: the one payment line you can actually control
Insolvencies are at record levels and costs are climbing on every front. Most of those pressures are outside your control — but the cost of accepting cards is one line you can actually review.
Flat-rate vs interchange-plus: how the two pricing models compare
Almost every provider prices card acceptance one of two ways — a single flat rate, or interchange-plus. The October 2026 interchange cut changes how they stack up. Here is how each works, in plain English.
eftpos vs credit cards: why the way a customer pays changes your cost
eftpos is usually the cheapest network to process, though on a flat rate you pay the same percentage either way, so the saving only reaches you on interchange-linked pricing or through least-cost routing.
PCI compliance for small business: a plain-English guide
If you accept cards, PCI DSS applies to you. The good news: using a compliant provider does most of the heavy lifting. Here is what it means and what you actually need to do.
Chargebacks explained: what they are and how to reduce them
A chargeback reverses a card payment when a customer disputes it — and it can cost you the sale plus a fee. Here is how the process works and practical steps to reduce them.
How much does card processing cost in Australia?
There is no single "card fee" — what you pay depends on your pricing model, your card mix and your volume. Here is how to work out your own cost of accepting cards, and where to check current provider pricing.
Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android: taking card payments without a terminal
Tap to Pay turns a phone into a contactless card reader — no separate terminal, no hardware to buy. Here is how it works in Australia, which providers offer it, what it costs, and where it fits.
Least-cost routing (merchant choice routing): how to cut debit card costs
Least-cost routing (also called merchant choice routing) sends contactless debit taps down the cheaper network. After the October 2026 surcharge ban it becomes one of the few levers left to lower what you pay — here is how it works and how to switch it on.
After 1 October: your merchant payments checklist
Whether the surcharge ban is a compliance chore or a few thousand dollars of annual savings depends entirely on what you do between now and 30 September. Here is the complete checklist, in order, with the time each step takes.
POS-bundled payments: are Lightspeed and Shopify POS worth the extra software cost?
For many retail and hospitality businesses, payments no longer arrive as a standalone terminal — they come welded to the point-of-sale software that runs the whole shop. Bundles like Lightspeed and Shopify POS deliver real operational value, but they change the cost question entirely: you're no longer buying a rate, you're buying an ecosystem. Here's how to price one honestly.
How to negotiate better merchant fees with your bank after the surcharge ban
The RBA has said plainly that small businesses should be the biggest beneficiaries of October's interchange reductions [1]. Whether that happens at your business depends on a conversation most merchants never have. Here's how to have it — with the leverage, the script, and the traps.
Why travel agents may start refusing your credit card — and what it means for your points and perks
The surcharge ban has a strange side effect the headlines are only half-covering. Much of the coverage has focused on shrinking credit-card perks — fewer points, less lounge access, complimentary travel insurance under threat. But underneath that consumer story is a merchant one: for travel agents working on razor-thin commissions, a credit-card payment can now cost more than the sale earns them. Some are considering refusing credit cards altogether. Here's how the two halves connect — and why it matters whichever side of the counter you're on.
When "just absorb it" doesn't work: card fees for high-ticket, thin-margin businesses
Most surcharge-ban advice assumes you can absorb the cost or quietly build it into your prices. For a cafe adding 30 cents to a coffee, that's true. But for businesses selling big-ticket items on thin margins — travel, jewellery, furniture, large trade invoices, events — the maths can break down completely. On a high-value credit-card sale, the acceptance fee can be larger than the profit on the sale itself. This guide is about what to do when absorbing the fee isn't a rounding error, but the difference between a sale and a loss.
Interchange-linked vs flat-rate merchant fees: which is actually cheaper?
Every merchant pricing plan in Australia is a variation on two ideas: pay one blended rate for everything (flat), or pay the true wholesale cost of each transaction plus a margin (interchange-linked, "cost plus"). Neither is universally cheaper. This guide shows you how to work out which wins for your business — with worked numbers at $50,000/month.
The flat-rate trap: why Square and Zeller merchants might miss out on RBA savings
Flat-rate providers earned their popularity honestly: one rate, no lock-in, no rental, hardware you own. But the RBA's October interchange cut exposes the structural cost of that simplicity — when your provider's wholesale costs fall, your flat rate doesn't. This article explains the mechanics without the hype, so you can decide whether simplicity is still worth its new price.
Why fewer than 1 in 10 Australian businesses switch payment providers (and why October changes that)
The RBA found that fewer than one in ten businesses switched their payment provider in 2024–25 [2]. Yet the spread between an average deal and a sharp one routinely runs to thousands of dollars a year at ordinary small-business volumes. This article is about the gap between those two facts — and why the October reforms are the rare event that closes it.
Shift4 and Tyro merchants: how to calculate your real costs after the surcharge ban
The surcharge model ended on 1 October. The harder question is what you now pay. Here's how to work it out in four steps with numbers you already have.
Why are my card fees higher since the surcharge ban?
Bill shock is the jump in card fees merchants are seeing on their first statements after 1 October 2026. Surcharging ended, so the business now pays the card fee its customers used to cover.
How to choose a card payment provider in Australia (2026 buyer's guide)
The headline rate is the worst way to pick a card machine. Here's the Compayr method: start with your real numbers, weigh the five costs that actually move your bill, and know exactly what to ask before you sign.
How to switch payment providers without losing a day of trade
Switching provider sounds risky — downtime, a gap in payouts, a contract you can't escape. Done in the right order, it's a quiet afternoon's work. Here's the Compayr switch checklist.
Choosing a POS system: software fees vs payment processing
A POS system sends you two bills — software and payment processing — and they don't always come from the same place. Here's how to compare the monthly cost without getting locked into the wrong bundle.
Online payment gateways: a buyer's guide to fees and features
Online pricing hides in the per-transaction fee, the international loading and the payout timing. Here's how to compare gateways on what you'll actually pay — and the features worth paying for.
The 62.5% cut to wholesale card costs — and why your bill may not budge
While the surcharge ban grabs the headlines, the quieter half of the RBA's October reform is the one that decides whether card acceptance actually gets cheaper for your business: a cut to the wholesale "interchange" cap on domestic credit cards from 0.8% down to 0.3% [1]. That's a 62.5% reduction — in the cap. What lands in your bank account depends entirely on how your provider prices you. For many merchants, the honest answer is: nothing, unless you act.
RBA banned card surcharges from October 1: What this means for your business
Since 1 October 2026, adding a surcharge to eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments has been banned in Australia under the card schemes' rules. If your business surcharged, the cost of accepting cards moved onto your side of the ledger, and you will see it on your first post-October statement.