How to read your merchant statement or payments bill

Your October payments bill arrives in early November. Your provider may call it a merchant statement. For most merchants it will look much like September's. The cost will not.

In short: to read your merchant statement, find three numbers. Your monthly card turnover, your card mix and every fee you paid. Divide the fees by the turnover. That is your effective rate, and it is the one number you can compare across any provider. Then check whether your provider passed on the 1 October cut on the pass through tracker.

Why did my card fees go up in October?

Surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa ended on 1 October 2026. Before that date a surcharging merchant passed the card fee to the customer. From that date the merchant absorbs it. The line on the bill did not change. Who pays it did.

A second change ran the other way. The RBA cut the cap on interchange for Australian consumer credit cards from 0.8% to 0.3% [1]. Commercial credit cards stayed at 0.8%. Interchange is the wholesale fee inside what a merchant pays. The RBA estimates the interchange changes together are worth about $910 million a year in lower wholesale card costs for merchants [1].

Of the 20 card acceptance plans Compayr tracks, 7 have reduced their published rate since 1 October. The other 13 have not [2]. A merchant on one of those 13 absorbed the surcharge and received none of the interchange cut.

This page shows how to read the bill and work out which position you are in.

If you want the number before the detail, the surcharge ban calculator shows what your business now absorbs each month and each year.

What three numbers do I need from my merchant statement?

Three figures describe your current deal. Everything else is detail.

• Monthly card turnover. The value of card transactions processed
• Card mix. The split between debit, credit and international cards
• Fees paid. Every acceptance cost on the bill, not the percentage line alone

Divide fees by turnover and you have your effective rate. That one number compares across any provider, any pricing model and any month. A headline rate does not.

Once you have the three figures, the surcharge ban calculator turns them into a monthly and annual cost.

Where do I find turnover, card mix and fees on my statement?

Turnover sits on page one. Look for "Total sales", "Settlement value" or "Gross transactions". Use the gross figure, before fees are deducted. Average three months.

Card mix appears as a breakdown by scheme. eftpos and debit, Visa and Mastercard credit, international. Some providers show it in the dashboard rather than the PDF. A workable Australian in person default is 70% debit, 27% credit, 3% international. Your own split is better.

Fees are spread across the bill. Collect all of them.

• Merchant service fee, the percentage line, blended or split by scheme
• Terminal rental or equipment fee, often on a separate page or invoice
• Monthly account or participation fee
• Minimum monthly service charge, a floor you pay in quiet months
• Per transaction cents, typically $0.05 to $0.30 on some plans
• Chargeback fees, paper statement fees, PCI and compliance fees
• International and foreign card loadings

If your business is registered for GST, compare on the ex GST figure. You claim the GST back. Providers are inconsistent about whether they quote inc or ex GST, and it moves the answer by about 10%.

How much does the surcharge ban cost my business?

A retailer processes $42,000 of card sales a month on a 1.4% inc GST flat rate.

• Merchant service fee: $588
• Terminal rental: $29
• Monthly fee: $10
• Fees: $627
• Effective rate: 1.49%

Before 1 October this retailer surcharged 1.4% and recovered about $588 from customers each month. The net cost to the business was $39.

From 1 October the surcharge is gone. The net cost is $627. The bill did not change by a cent. The business now absorbs $588 a month, which is $7,056 a year.

That is the bill shock. It is not a price rise. It is the removal of the mechanism that used to pay for it.

Run your own turnover and rate through the surcharge ban calculator to see the figure for your business.

What is a provider rate cut worth?

Same retailer, same $42,000. A provider that cut its flat rate to 0.99% inc GST:

• Merchant service fee: $415.80
• Terminal rental and monthly fee: $39
• Fees: $454.80
• Effective rate: 1.08%

That is $172.20 a month, or $2,066 a year, against the plan above.

The interchange cut is real money. Whether it reaches you depends on your provider.

The surcharge ban calculator will show the gap at your own turnover.

Did my provider pass the cut on?

Compayr tracks the published rate of each plan before 1 October 2026 and the rate published now, with the date each was checked and a link to the provider's own pricing page.

Seven plans have cut. Westpac moved furthest, from 1.2% to 0.79%. CommBank cut its flat rate from 1.10% to 0.99%. NAB, ANZ Worldline, Zeller POS, Shopify POS and Stripe also reduced. Square, Tyro, SumUp, PayPal, Eway, Pin and Airwallex have not changed their published rate [2].

Check your provider on the pass through tracker.

What are the red flags on a merchant statement?

• Effective rate climbing over six months with no change in card mix. Repricing you were not told about, or fee creep. Check the cost against the surcharge ban calculator
• A minimum service charge appearing in quiet months. The plan does not fit your volume
• A blended rate above 1.5% ex GST on a debit heavy mix. You are paying credit prices for debit taps. Least cost routing is the lever here
• Fee codes you cannot name. Every line is either explicable or negotiable. Negotiating with your provider starts with naming them

What should I do with the numbers?

Three bills. Three numbers. One division. That gives you an effective rate, and an effective rate makes every provider conversation honest, including the one with your current provider.

Start with the surcharge ban calculator. It takes your turnover and rate and returns what the ban costs your business each month and each year.

Then put the same figures into the merchant fee calculator to see what the providers Compayr tracks would charge at your volume.

What changes to merchant statements are coming?

From 30 October 2026, large acquirers publish quarterly merchant service fee figures.

From 30 January 2027, they publish an interchange pass through measure.

From 1 April 2027, merchant statements must carry a minimum set of fields [1].

Bills get easier to read from 2027. Until then the arithmetic above is the way to know what you pay.

Guidance is general. Bill formats vary by provider. Provider details are indicative and were last verified on the date shown on the pass through tracker. This article is general information, not financial advice. Compayr may receive a referral fee from a provider when a merchant switches through us. This does not affect our rankings, which are ordered on estimated card acceptance cost.