Free tool
Card Surcharge Ban Calculator
See what card fees really cost your business once the surcharge goes, and the small price change that covers them.
Card fees you'll carry
$209 a month
$2,502 a year, on $12,000 of card payments
Price rise that covers it
0.7%
Across everything you invoice, because the rise applies to all your sales but the fee only to card ones.
What a card payment really costs you
1.7%
$13.90 on a typical $800 payment, once the per-payment fee is counted.
Bank transfer discount you could offer
up to 1.7%
If a customer pays by transfer instead of card, you save the fee, so a discount up to that rate leaves you no worse off. Show it as a discount off the full price.
Arithmetic only, on the numbers you enter. Card rates vary by provider and plan, and the RBA is lowering the fees underneath yours from 1 October 2026, so check your own statement. Not financial or legal advice.
From 1 October 2026the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks bring in no-surcharge rules, and American Express, UnionPay and PayPal have said they’ll drop surcharging too. You can’t add a fee because someone paid by card, on the terminal or on an invoice link. The fee itself doesn’t go away, so the question is how to carry it.
Put in what you invoice in a month, how much of that arrives by card and your card rate. The calculator shows the fees you’ll carry, the price rise across everything that covers them (usually well under 1%), and the most you could take off for bank transfer without being worse off.
The rules on describing price changes and discounts are in our guide, The card surcharge ban starts 1 October. What tradies need to do.
Frequently asked questions
What is the card surcharge ban?
From 1 October 2026 the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks are introducing no-surcharge rules, following the Reserve Bank's review of card payment costs. American Express, UnionPay and PayPal have said they will remove surcharging from the same date (PayPal from 5 October). From then on you can't add a fee because a customer paid by card, on a terminal or on an invoice link. The cost of taking cards has to sit inside your prices instead.
How much do card payments cost a small business?
The RBA's figures, quoted by the ACCC, put the cost of accepting cards for a business processing under $1 million a year at 0.85% to 2% for debit and eftpos and 1% to 2% for credit. Online payment links are usually a flat rate: Stripe's standard Australian rate is 1.7% plus 30 cents a transaction, and Stripe has said its domestic rate drops from 1 October. Put your own provider's rate in and the calculator does the rest.
Why is the price rise so much smaller than the card rate?
Because the fee only applies to the money that comes in by card, but a price rise applies to everything you invoice. If 40% of your takings are by card at 1.7%, the fees are about 0.7% of your total sales, so a rise of 0.7% across the board covers them.
Can I offer a discount for bank transfer instead?
Yes. The RBA and the ACCC both say discounts for a particular payment method are still allowed. The displayed price must be the full price, the discount must be disclosed before the customer books or pays, and the discounted price can't be shown more prominently than the full one. The calculator shows the most you could take off and still be no worse off than the card fee.
Is this advice?
No, it's arithmetic on the numbers you type in. Whether to absorb the fee, raise prices or discount another method is your call, and the ACCC has rules about how price changes and discounts are described. Read our guide to the surcharge ban for those, and talk to your accountant about your own situation.
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