Australia's Card Surcharge Ban 2026: What Every Venue Owner Needs to Know

The Deadline Is Real: October 1, 2026

Australia's federal government has banned card surcharges effective October 1, 2026. If your venue currently adds a surcharge to card payments — that stops on October 1.

This isn't a guideline. It's legislation. Venues found charging surcharges after the deadline face penalties under consumer law enforced by the ACCC.

What Counts as a Surcharge?

Under the new rules, a surcharge is any additional fee charged to a customer specifically because they paid by card:

• A percentage added at checkout (e.g. "1.5% card surcharge")
• A flat fee per transaction (e.g. "$0.50 card fee")
• Any differential pricing where card customers pay more than cash customers

What is not affected: minimum order values, service charges, or standard menu pricing.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Most venue owners think they're simply passing on their merchant fees. Here's the reality of the maths.

If your venue does $50,000/month in card revenue and you're currently charging a 1.5% surcharge, you're collecting $750/month from customers to cover processing costs. From October 1, that $750 comes directly out of your margin — unless you act now.

There are three options:

1. Raise menu prices — absorb the fee into your pricing. Clean solution, but requires reprinting menus.
2. Negotiate a lower processing rate — most venues are on 1.2–1.8%. Competitive rates today are under 0.8%.
3. Switch to PayTo — the payment method that bypasses card networks entirely.

PayTo: The Surcharge-Free Alternative

PayTo is a real-time payment method developed by the Australian Payments Network. Unlike Visa and Mastercard, PayTo runs directly through the banking system — which means processing costs are a fraction of card rates.

• Processing cost: typically $0.15–0.30 flat per transaction regardless of value
• Speed: real-time settlement — funds hit your account the same day
• Customer experience: customers approve via their banking app — no card required
• Dispute rate: dramatically lower than card payments

For a venue doing $50,000/month in revenue, switching from a 1.5% card rate to PayTo flat fees can save $500–600 per month.

What You Need to Do Before October 1

1. Calculate your current surcharge income. Look at your last 3 months of POS reports. How much are you collecting in surcharges? That number tells you exactly what's at stake.

2. Audit your processing rate. If you're on a standard bank terminal at 1.5–1.8%, you're almost certainly paying too much. Integrated POS processing rates today are under 1%.

3. Enable PayTo on your POS. If your POS supports PayTo (Payflo does, natively), turn it on now. By October you'll have a mix of PayTo and low-rate card that keeps your margins intact.

4. Update your menu pricing if needed. If you're going to absorb fees into your menu, do it before October 1 — not on the deadline when it looks reactive to customers.

What Happens If You Keep Surcharging?

The ACCC will enforce the ban. Customers will be able to report venues. The penalties for non-compliance are real — and so is the reputational damage of being the venue that got caught.

How Payflo Handles This

Payflo is already live with PayTo for all customers. Every Payflo terminal accepts PayTo payments out of the box — no extra hardware, no setup fee.

Our processing rates are designed for hospitality venues, and our Xero integration means every PayTo transaction syncs automatically. If you want to understand exactly how the surcharge ban affects your venue's specific numbers, book a 15-minute call with our team. We'll run the maths for free.