Tap and no? The card surcharges that look set for the chop

Sydney Morning Herald

09-05-2025

The central bank will release its report on surcharging shortly, and the government will then decide whether to ban debit surcharges, while seeking to not disproportionately hurt small businesses.
'We're cracking down on unfair and excessive card surcharges to get a better deal for Australians and small businesses,' a spokesman for Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.
'We're prepared to ban debit card surcharges subject to the further work under way now by the Reserve Bank if there are sufficient safeguards to ensure both small businesses and consumers can benefit from lower costs.'
The Reserve says small businesses can be charged a whopping three times more in transaction fees than larger merchants.
The hospitality industry warns that menu prices will have to rise if businesses can no longer recover the cost of debit card payments from customers, saying a coffee that now costs $5.08 with a card surcharge might rise to $5.50.
'Of course it will be inflationary,' said Wes Lambert, chief executive of the Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association. 'Removing a debit surcharge will translate directly to the bottom line. And to mitigate this drop in profit, we'll see a sharp increase in prices much greater than 8¢ that we currently pay on a cup of coffee. We'll be rounding that [price rise] to 10¢, 20¢ or even 50¢.'
The Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association, the Australian Hotels Association and the Australian Lottery & Newsagents Association are lobbying the Reserve Bank against a ban.
Card surcharging is more common in cafes, restaurants and pubs than in other sectors, the Reserve said.
But Ebstein said the removal of surcharges would have a negligible effect on consumer prices and that any ensuing price rises by businesses would be opportunistic. He said the cost to merchants of accepting cards had reduced significantly since the Reserve first allowed surcharging in 2013.
Ebstein, of MWE Consulting, said businesses should regard card payment costs as another cost of being in business.
'You don't charge someone an extra bit because you've just done an advertising campaign, or you've just paid your electricity bill,' he said. 'Card costs actually reduce your overall costs because 30 years ago you were maintaining accounts for customers, there was a cost; most of your payments were in cash, there was a cost.'
Palace Cinemas chief executive Benjamin Zeccola said banning card surcharges would do 'serious damage to the sectors driving economic activity and employment'.
Surcharging helped businesses recover their costs transparently, Zeccola said.
'If government reform eliminates that transparent mechanism without care, it's not cutting 'junk fees' – it is foisting them invisibly onto small businesses, pushing prices up, or worse, tipping fragile businesses over the edge,' he said. 'That's inflationary, not protective.'
Family-run book retailer the Book Depot goes against the norm by not charging the surcharge at the point of sale.
'All of us find it annoying as consumers and so have avoided inflicting it on our customers,' co-owner Tony Sidebottom said. 'We also try and offer the cheapest books in the marketplace and this message doesn't sit comfortably alongside the surcharge.'
Sidebottom said the Book Depot regarded the surcharge as just another cost, like electricity.
'The consumer pays for it anyway, really. With our business, our margins reduce very slightly but when we're considering pricing decisions, it's something we take into account.'
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said misleading surcharging practices were a compliance and enforcement priority. It regularly received tip-offs about alleged excessive surcharging, particularly by small and micro-businesses, it said.
But big companies are not immune to excessive card surcharging. The competition watchdog said Europcar, Fitness First and Nine Entertainment, owner of The Age, had been financially penalised for charging surcharges that were greater than their costs.
The Australian Banking Association said consumers 'should always know the cost of an item before they pay for it'.
The association said while it wanted to see less surcharging, prohibiting it 'would represent an abrupt shift to a practice'.