Card Surcharge Ban Starts 1 October: What to Change in Your Online Checkout, Booking System and Invoices

From 1 October 2026, Australian businesses can no longer add a surcharge because a customer pays by card. eftpos, Mastercard and Visa have each introduced “no-surcharge” rules, and American Express, JCB and UnionPay have said they will align. The change covers credit, debit and prepaid cards, in store and online.

Most coverage focuses on payment terminals. But if you sell online, take bookings or send invoices from software, the surcharge is often baked into your website, your checkout plugin, your practice management system or your invoice templates. Those will not update themselves. This guide covers what to check before Thursday.

What is changing on 1 October

• No card surcharges. You cannot add a fee because the customer chose to pay by card, according to the Reserve Bank’s FAQ.
• Some fees are still allowed. Weekend surcharges, public holiday surcharges, booking fees and service fees are not card surcharges, so they are not covered by the ban.
• Few exemptions. Businesses, including not-for-profits, are not exempt unless a card network’s rules provide one.
• Lower interchange fees. The RBA is also lowering the interchange fees that sit underneath your merchant fees, and increasing transparency about what merchants pay.

Your bank or payment provider will ask you to switch off surcharging on terminals, update point-of-sale settings and remove surcharge signage, as CommBank and ANZ have outlined. The online side is where businesses get caught.

Checklist: your website and online checkout

1. Checkout fees. Check your WooCommerce, Shopify or custom checkout for any “card fee”, “processing fee” or percentage added at payment. Plugins that add gateway fees are common, and easy to forget.
2. Payment gateway settings. Stripe, Square, PayPal and bank gateways can add fees through their own settings or through custom code. Check both.
3. Price displays. Remove “prices exclude card surcharge” notes from product pages, carts and emails.
4. Terms and conditions. Update your website terms, refund policy and checkout terms that mention surcharges.
5. Order emails and receipts. Make sure templates no longer show a surcharge line.
6. Test a real order with credit, debit and a digital wallet after you make changes.

Checklist: booking and practice management systems

• Clinic billing. Practices that pass on card fees through their practice management system or payment terminal integration need to switch that off. If you use Halaxy, review your payment settings and our overview of how Halaxy payments work.
• Online booking deposits. Check whether deposits or cancellation fees taken online include a card fee.
• Integrations. If your practice management system syncs to Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, remove surcharge line items and any accounting rules that expect them. A custom Halaxy integration may need its mappings updated.

Checklist: invoices, subscriptions and recurring payments

• Remove surcharge lines from invoice templates in Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks or your own system.
• Update subscription and membership billing, including direct debit and card-on-file plans that add a fee for card payments.
• Review automated payment reminders and SMS messages that mention a card fee.

Raffles, competitions and memberships

Competition and membership platforms often add a small card fee to every entry or subscription. From 1 October that fee needs to come out of the checkout, and the entry or membership pricing may need to be reset. If you run draws, our raffle platform team can help you adjust entry pricing and checkout logic without breaking your entry allocation.

What to do about the cost

You still pay merchant fees. The RBA’s guidance is that those costs can be built into your overall pricing rather than charged separately. Options include:

• Reviewing your merchant plan now that interchange fees are falling.
• Adjusting prices slightly to absorb the fee.
• Encouraging lower-cost payment methods, such as bank transfer for invoices.

If you change prices, update them everywhere at once: website, booking system, invoices and marketing.

Frequently asked questions

When does the card surcharge ban start?

1 October 2026.

Does the ban apply to online payments?

Yes. The no-surcharge rules apply to transactions on the card networks, not just in-store terminals.

Can I still charge a weekend or public holiday surcharge?

Yes. Those are not card surcharges, so the ban does not cover them.

Does it apply to American Express?

American Express, JCB and UnionPay have said they will align with the ban from 1 October.

Related: see how we manage and scale ecommerce platforms, including a store that handled 20,000 concurrent shoppers on its biggest sale day.

This article is general information, not legal or financial advice. Confirm your obligations with your payment provider.