RBA Confirmed: 72 days until card surcharges are banned. Check you're on the right rate →
The RBA surcharge ban is now in effect. Check you're on the right rate →
Yes — nothing about card surcharging changes before 1 October 2026, so existing surcharging arrangements can continue until then. The valuable use of this interim period is preparation: reviewing your merchant rate and pricing so the change doesn’t catch your margins off guard. Any surcharge you do apply now should still not exceed your cost of acceptance.
Last updated: 2 July 2026
The short version: the surcharge ban has a start date, and that date is 1 October 2026. Until then, the card-related surcharging rules you operate under today don’t change, so a compliant surcharge on eftpos, Mastercard or Visa can continue through the run-up. The usual condition still applies — a surcharge should not exceed your cost of acceptance — but the ability to surcharge those networks remains until the start date arrives.
The real point of the interim isn’t “keep surcharging while you can” — it’s using the months beforehand to get ready. From 1 October 2026 the cost you currently pass to customers via a surcharge will land on your business instead. The businesses that handle this well are the ones that review their effective merchant rate now, model what absorbing the cost looks like, and adjust headline pricing in good time rather than scrambling on the day.
Answer a few quick questions. Final eligibility is confirmed from your merchant statement.
A few concrete moves help. Check your current effective rate against indicative benchmarks — flat in-person averages sit around 1.37% and online around 1.78%, with small-business effective rates commonly between 1.1% and 2.5%. Ask whether your provider supports least-cost routing, which can route dual-network debit to the cheaper network and, per the RBA, cut debit acceptance cost by around 20%. And confirm whether your provider will pass through the interchange cuts that start on the same day. These figures are indicative and this is general information, not advice.
Sources: RBA Conclusions Paper media release (mr-26-10) · ACCC card surcharges guidance · Eway: RBA reform response · Tyro: surcharge ban confirmed.
Information current as at 2 July 2026.
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