Meta description: The 1 October 2026 card surcharge ban is a pricing and systems moment. Here are five practical moves Australian businesses should make this week.
When I sit down with a client and we review their payment reports, the surcharge often looks harmless at first.
A few cents here. A percentage point there. A line on the receipt that customers have learned to accept.
But then we multiply it across hundreds or thousands of transactions.
Suddenly, the “small” card fee is a meaningful part of the business’s margin.
From 1 October 2026, businesses can no longer add card surcharges for eftpos, Visa, Mastercard or American Express payments. That applies to debit, credit and prepaid cards, including many online and mobile wallet payments.
The change is not just a payments admin task. It is a pricing, profitability and systems moment.
But here’s the thing: you do not have to panic. You do need to understand your numbers and make a clear decision before Thursday.
The RBA’s official FAQ confirms that businesses can reflect payment costs in their overall prices instead of adding a separate surcharge. Weekend and public holiday surcharges, booking fees, and genuine service fees that apply regardless of payment method remain allowed.
Here are the five moves I would make with a client this week.
1. Measure your real card-payment cost
SMART objective: By Tuesday 29 September, download your latest merchant statements and calculate the average monthly cost of accepting each payment type.
Do not guess. Your payment provider’s pricing may include more than the transaction percentage.
Check for:
- Merchant service fees
- Terminal rental or subscription costs
- Gateway and online payment fees
- Fixed fees per transaction
- Chargeback fees
- Refund fees
- Different rates for domestic, international, debit and credit cards
- Fees charged through booking or point-of-sale software
Ask your payment provider for a plain-English breakdown if the statement looks like alphabet soup. Your provider is also the right place to confirm when surcharge functionality will be removed from your terminal or online gateway.
A salon client, for example, may process hundreds of small card payments every week. Even a modest average fee can add up to thousands of dollars a year. An allied health practice may have fewer transactions but a high card-payment volume because patients commonly pay by card at reception.
For a construction firm, the issue may look different. A large progress claim paid by card can create a sizeable processing cost in one transaction, even if card payments are not part of the firm’s everyday workflow.
This is where profit focused bookkeeping matters. Clean records should not only tell you what happened. They should help you see where profit is quietly leaking away.
2. Run the margin numbers before deciding what to absorb
SMART objective: By Wednesday morning, model the effect of absorbing card fees on your gross margin, monthly profit and cashflow.
Take three months of payment data and compare:
- Total card sales
- Total payment fees
- Average fee as a percentage of sales
- Average transaction value
- Gross profit per transaction
- Net profit before and after payment fees
A simple example:
- Monthly card sales: $80,000
- Average processing cost: 1.5%
- Monthly payment cost: $1,200
- Annual payment cost: $14,400
Can the business absorb that cost without changing anything? Perhaps. But should it? That is a different question.
What happens if your margin is already tight? What if wages, rent, software subscriptions and supplier costs have all risen too? What if customers are paying later while your business pays expenses immediately?
This is the point where cashflow planning for small business becomes practical rather than theoretical. You are not just looking at an expense. You are asking how payment costs affect the money available for payroll, suppliers, tax and growth.
A creative agency may not have many card transactions, but it may pay payment fees on retainers, deposits or online invoices. In that environment, pricing and payment terms need to be reviewed together. A virtual CFO for creative agencies can help model whether milestone billing, direct debit or revised project pricing gives the agency a healthier cash position.
And guess what? Wanting a healthy margin is not greedy. Profit gives you room to pay people properly, serve clients well and make responsible decisions.
3. Choose a transparent pricing response
SMART objective: By Wednesday afternoon, approve a pricing decision for each major product or service and document the reason behind it.
You generally have three choices:
- Absorb the cost and accept a small reduction in margin.
- Adjust prices across the board so all customers contribute fairly to the cost of doing business.
- Review payment options, including whether discounts for certain methods are commercially and legally appropriate.
The safest pricing response is usually not to add a new line called “card surcharge” after 1 October. Instead, review your overall price structure.
If you increase prices, be honest with customers. Do not blame the entire increase solely on the surcharge ban if the real reason also includes wages, rent, materials, insurance or other operating costs.
You could say:
“We have reviewed our pricing to reflect the total cost of delivering our service, including recent changes to payment processing, wages and operating expenses.”
That is clear. It respects your customers’ intelligence.
The right answer will vary by industry:
- Hair and beauty salons: Review service menus, package pricing and booking deposits. A few dollars added across core services may be more sustainable than absorbing thousands in annual processing costs.
- Medical and allied health practices: Look at appointment fees, gap payments and terminal costs, while keeping patient communication simple and sensitive.
- Building and construction businesses: Review progress claim terms, deposit structures and whether card payments are appropriate for large invoices. A small pricing adjustment may be less disruptive than absorbing a significant fee on a large claim.
- HR and recruitment agencies: Check whether candidate placement fees, retainers and recurring subscriptions are priced consistently across payment methods.
- Real estate firms: Review property management fees, application payments and online booking or inspection platforms for hidden payment charges.
- Creative agencies: Revisit retainers, deposits and milestone invoices. Your payment terms are part of your pricing strategy, not an afterthought.
Use the RBA’s explanation of the reforms alongside your own numbers. The goal is not to find a clever workaround. The goal is to build prices that are fair, sustainable and easy to explain.
4. Clean every customer-facing system and brief your team
SMART objective: By 30 September, remove card-surcharge references from every customer touchpoint and brief staff using one agreed explanation.
Create a short systems checklist:
- POS terminal settings
- Online checkout
- Booking software
- Website pricing pages
- Online quotes and proposals
- Invoices and payment links
- Email templates
- Terms and conditions
- Printed menus and service lists
- Automated SMS reminders
- Customer service scripts
Do not forget invoices issued before 1 October where the customer pays after 1 October. The RBA says the relevant date is when the card payment is made, not simply when the invoice was issued.
Then brief your front-of-house team. Give them a simple script:
“From 1 October, card surcharges are no longer charged for eftpos, Visa, Mastercard or American Express. Our pricing has been reviewed to reflect the overall cost of providing our services.”
If customers ask whether prices increased because of the ban, answer accurately. Do not tell them “the government made us increase everything” if that is not the full story.
This is also a good time to look at your wider technology stack. Are your booking system, POS, accounting software and bank feeds talking to each other? Are payment fees being coded correctly? Are refunds and chargebacks reconciled?
Good systems make good bookkeeping for small business much easier. They also give you a clearer view of what customers are buying, how they are paying and where your margin is going.
5. Use October’s compliance dates to protect cashflow
SMART objective: By Friday 2 October, put every October tax, payroll and super obligation into your calendar with an owner and a cash estimate.
The surcharge change arrives alongside a busy compliance month.
21 October 2026
Prepare for:
- September monthly BAS
- September monthly PAYG withholding and instalment activity, where applicable
28 October 2026
Prepare for:
- September quarter BAS for July to September
- Quarterly PAYG instalments, where applicable
- September quarter employee superannuation contributions
31 October 2026
Relevant businesses and super funds should also check:
- Unclaimed super money reporting
- Lost member reporting
- Any other reporting or return obligations applying to their structure
Check the ATO’s October due-date guidance for your specific circumstances.
There is another issue I want employers to take seriously: ATO super guarantee charge letters.
The ATO has been sending letters to employers where its records suggest super may not have been paid in full, to the correct fund or by the due date. Ignoring one is not a strategy.
Review:
- Payroll calculations
- Single Touch Payroll records
- Super clearing house reports
- Failed or returned payments
- Employee fund details
- Confirmation that contributions reached the fund on time
If there is a shortfall for an affected quarter, you may need to lodge a Super Guarantee Charge statement and pay the charge to the ATO. If you cannot pay in full, contact the ATO to discuss a payment plan. The ATO’s SGC guidance explains the process.
This is the less glamorous side of BAS and payroll management Australia businesses cannot afford to overlook. Compliance debts can quietly drain cashflow and distract directors from growth.
The bigger lesson: this is a systems moment
The 1 October card surcharge ban is not simply about removing one line from a receipt.
It is an invitation to ask better questions:
- Do we know the real cost of accepting payments?
- Are our prices still profitable?
- Do our systems reflect how customers actually pay?
- Can our team explain changes clearly?
- Is our cashflow ready for October obligations?
That is the work I do with clients through virtual CFO services, profit-focused bookkeeping and practical cashflow planning. We untangle the financial threads, listen to the tales your cashflow is telling and turn them into decisions you can act on.
You should be paid properly for the value you create. You should be able to grow without compromising your ethics or your boundaries.
Want the payment, pricing and compliance admin off your to-do list? Book a free strategy call with Ethical CFO.