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During the past 18 months, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has been reviewing the cost of card payments in Australia, including the fees businesses pay to accept cards and the surcharges customers see at checkout. With more Australians paying by card than ever before, surcharging has become a growing topic of public debate. Today, the RBA announced changes to the rules around card surcharging. Here’s what you need to know and what it could mean for your business.
What happened?
On 31 March 2026, the RBA announced that merchants will no longer have the right to impose a card payment surcharge on consumers, starting from 1 October 2026. Once this happens, businesses will no longer be able to pass card payment processing costs directly on to customers as a surcharge. The decision applies across the Australian payments system and will affect all businesses that accept card payments, regardless of provider.
At the same time, the RBA is reducing interchange fees on credit cards. This will result in lower payment processing costs for businesses across the economy.
Until this happens, you can continue to surcharge customers no more than your cost of card acceptance.
How can the RBA do this? Do these changes require legislation to implement?
The RBA is Australia’s payment systems regulator. Businesses have been able to impose surcharges on card payments because the RBA enabled this using its regulatory powers over 20 years ago. Because of how payments have changed, and the decline of cash usage, the RBA has now decided that surcharging is not achieving its intended purpose. This is why it will be changing its rules to remove the ability of merchants to surcharge. These changes do not require legislation.
What does this mean for my business?
If you don’t currently surcharge customers, there’s no change for you.
If you do apply a card surcharge today, this will no longer be permitted from as soon as 1 October 2026.
What happens next?
For now, it’s business as usual. There are no immediate changes to how you accept payments or apply surcharges. Square will have more to share in the coming months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still surcharge?
Yes. You can continue to pass on a card surcharge until 1 October 2026, provided it does not exceed your cost of card acceptance. For Square sellers, that means no more than your card processing fee.
Does this affect weekend and public holiday surcharges?
No. The RBA changes apply only to processing card payments. Weekend and public holiday surcharging is not affected.
What is Square doing about this?
We are engaging closely with the RBA and reviewing the detail as it is released. We will keep you updated and ensure sellers are well supported ahead of any changes.
