RBA Surcharge Ban: What Changes for Your Venue Before Oct 1

From 1 October 2026, Australian venues can no longer add a surcharge line for card payments — the RBA's card surcharge ban applies nationwide, across eftpos, Visa and Mastercard debit and credit. It's the outcome of a review the RBA has been running for a while, and it applies to every venue taking card payments, not just the ones charging the highest surcharges.

What's actually changing

• Card surcharge line items are removed from the checkout and EFTPOS receipt entirely
• The rule applies across eftpos, Visa and Mastercard debit and credit transactions
• Menu and signage pricing needs to reflect one final, inclusive price — not a base price plus a surcharge note
• Any surcharge language left on terminal prompts, printed menus or window signage needs to come down

Why the change is happening

Surcharges have varied wildly from venue to venue — some passed on the exact cost of processing, others added a flat percentage regardless of the card used. That inconsistency made it hard for customers to compare prices between venues, and hard for regulators to tell what was reasonable cost-recovery versus what wasn't. Removing surcharging altogether resets the playing field so the price on the menu is the price at the till, everywhere.

What happens if you don't get ahead of it

• A terminal still prompting for a surcharge after 1 October is a compliance problem, not just an awkward moment at the till
• Menu pricing that hasn't been updated looks confusing next to a receipt that suddenly has
• Staff who haven't been briefed get caught flat-footed by customer questions they can't answer with confidence

How Ai-Pay handles it for you

If you're running Ai-Pay, this is mostly done for you. Terminal settings update centrally ahead of the deadline, so there's no manual reprogramming needed per terminal, per venue, or per till. The team managing your account handles the technical side — your job is really just the menu and the floor briefing.

The bigger fix behind the scenes

Removing the surcharge line is the compliance requirement. Solving what that line was actually covering is a separate problem — and for venues on the Partnership Deal, the answer is a disclosed service fee applied through the POS at checkout, replacing the old surcharge rather than leaving a gap where it used to be. It's charged the same way the surcharge was, under a fully disclosed structure, with zero cost sitting on the venue itself.

Why this is an opportunity, not a hit

A single, honest price at the till removes one of the most common points of friction between venues and customers — the moment someone notices an extra line and asks about it. Venues that get ahead of the change walk into a competitive spring trading season with a simpler, more trustworthy checkout story than venues still catching up in November.

A pre-October 1 checklist

• Confirm your EFTPOS terminal settings reflect the new rule — on Ai-Pay, check this is already handled centrally
• Update printed and digital menu pricing to a single, inclusive figure
• Pull down any surcharge signage at the counter or on the window
• Brief your floor team on the change so they can answer questions with confidence — one less thing pulling their attention away from service
• Run a test transaction on the terminal to see exactly what the customer sees at checkout

Frequently Asked Questions