The 1 October card surcharge checklist.

General information only, current at 14 September 2026. Not legal, financial or tax advice.

For cafes, restaurants, bars, takeaways and multi-venue groups. From 1 October 2026 you cannot add a surcharge when a customer pays with an eftpos, Visa, Mastercard or American Express card. This checklist covers what to switch off, what to keep, what to tell staff and how to reprice.

What changes on 1 October.

The Reserve Bank has lifted its ban on "no surcharge" rules, and eftpos, Mastercard and Visa have each adopted one from 1 October 2026. It covers debit, prepaid and credit cards on those networks, including foreign cards. American Express follows from the same date, and banks report that UnionPay and JCB have aligned too. Banks say it applies in store and online. At the same time the RBA cuts the wholesale fees behind your merchant rate. The consumer credit cap falls to 0.3 per cent and the debit cap to 8 cents or 0.16 per cent. Whether that reaches you depends on your bank. At least one major bank has cut its single rate from 1.1 to 0.99 per cent.

What stays allowed.

The rule is about surcharges added because someone pays by card. Public holiday and weekend surcharges stay lawful, as do booking, delivery and service fees for a genuine service. You can offer a discount for cash or PayID. You can set a minimum card spend, but you can no longer add a fee to card payments under it. Diners Club, PayPal and buy now pay later sit outside the scheme rules. [Not verified from a primary source: the RBA and ACCC pages do not mention buy now pay later or venue-issued gift cards. Scheme-branded prepaid gift cards are covered.]

The checklist.

Till settings.

Turn off the card surcharge in your till before the first sale on 1 October. Most systems will not do it for you.
Delete any surcharge built as a service charge, tax line or automatic tip. A provider that switches the card surcharge off may leave these in place.
Keep your public holiday and Sunday surcharge rules and confirm they are separate from the card rule.
Check every register, tablet, kiosk and handheld as well as the main till.
Run a test sale on each card type on 1 October and read the receipt.

Terminal settings and who to call at the bank.

Ask your bank or provider whether it switches surcharging off for you, and when. Some are updating terminals through September, others on the day.
Leave terminals switched on and connected so the update can reach them.
If a standalone terminal still shows a surcharge setting on 28 September, call the helpdesk.
Ask for your merchant rate from 1 October in writing. Use the number on your merchant statement.
Ask whether least-cost routing is on for tap debit payments.

Menus, signage and website.

Remove every card surcharge line from menus, counter signs, terminal stickers, website, app and QR menu by 30 September.
Keep the weekend or public holiday line in the ACCC wording, "A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [day or days]". Show it as prominently as the biggest price on the menu.
Do not rename the card surcharge a service, handling or admin fee. The ACCC calls that misleading conduct.
If you are also passing on rent, power or wage rises, do not tell customers the price rise is because of the surcharge change.

Pricing decision.

Pull your surcharge income for the last 12 months from your till’s reports. That is the income you lose.
Get the new merchant rate from your bank and work out the yearly fee.
Choose one. Absorb it, lift prices across the menu or offer a discount for cash or PayID.
Worked example. A cafe takes $400,000 a year by card at 1.2 per cent. Fees are $4,800 a year, about $92 a week. A 1.2 per cent rise on card sales covers it, about 6 cents on a $4.70 coffee. With cash at 15 per cent of sales, a rise across the whole menu needs about 1 per cent. If the bank passes on the interchange cut and the rate falls to 1.0 per cent, the fee falls to $4,000.
Round to a clean price and note the reasoning with the date.

Staff briefing.

Tell staff before the first shift on 1 October that the card surcharge is gone and why.
Give them one sentence for customers who ask: "Card surcharges ended on 1 October under the new card scheme rules."
Remind them the public holiday and Sunday surcharge still applies and where it shows on the docket.
If a terminal still adds a surcharge, tell them not to charge it, to finish the sale without it and to call you.

Receipts and online ordering.

Check a printed and an emailed receipt for any surcharge line.
Check your online ordering checkout, QR table ordering and delivery app menus for a card fee.
If your online gateway adds a surcharge through an API or plugin, have it removed before 1 October. This is often left to you rather than done for you.
Check deposits and no-show fees on your booking system for a card surcharge.

Keep for your records.

A dated screenshot or report of till and terminal surcharge settings before and after 1 October.
The bank’s email or letter confirming surcharge removal and the new rate.
The surcharge income report and the pricing note behind your decision.
The old and new menus with dates.
Merchant statements from October. From 30 October the card schemes and large acquirers must publish average merchant fees quarterly, so you can compare.

What happens if you do not.

In practice the card schemes and your own payment provider enforce the rule through your merchant agreement, and a provider can act quickly. Separately, pricing that misleads a customer is a matter for the regulator under the Australian Consumer Law, where penalties are substantial. Read your merchant agreement, and see the ACCC guidance linked below.

Before you rely on this.

This checklist is general information for Australian venues, current at 14 September 2026. It is not legal, financial or tax advice and it does not take account of your circumstances. Rules, dates and provider arrangements change. Check the position with your own bank or payment provider, read your merchant agreement, and take professional advice where you need it. Use of this page is subject to our terms of use.

How Unyx Labs handles it.

Unyx Labs is a Sydney company building one system for cafes, restaurants, bars, takeaways and multi-venue groups. On the till, card surcharges are off. Public holiday and Sunday surcharges stay, set once and shown on the docket. Keep the bank terminal you already use. The platform connects to it. This is a checklist, not a promise. Check your own terminal and your own bank. Register before launch and your first 6 months are free.

Sources.

All fetched 7 September 2026.