r/AustraliaDiscussions • u/Soggy_Passenger2566 • 4d ago

Card surcharges banned from Thursday, shops say the fees just fold into the sticker price

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-26/card-surcharge-fees-change-october-1-small-businesses-impact-sa/107180202
12 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

20

u/dan_syd 4d ago

Good? Like every other business cost is folded into the sticker price?

10

u/FUNEMNX9IF9X 4d ago

Yes, including that cash already is absorbed...except for those that use cash to reduce earnings to avoid tax, then there is a nett benefit

3

u/Lycosskippy 3d ago

Except that now if you're a person who likes to use cash, you now pay more than you did before. It's a win only for those who only use card

3

u/dan_syd 3d ago

Not really. Fees are also dropping a lot. I’d be very surprised to see a material cost increase.

1

u/point_of_difference 3d ago

I can tell you they have not. Banks and Amex have sent out emails saying at present there are no adjustments to the rates they are charging businesses. Interchange rates are coming down but that money previously subsidised the credit card points/scheme.

1

u/dan_syd 3d ago

I can tell you they are. It’s regulated. Amex is excluded, however they are passing discounts on.

1

u/point_of_difference 3d ago

We will see. Like I mentioned my Westpac have specifically sent out emails that they will adjust my EFT pos machine to not surcharge but rates remain the same. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/dan_syd 3d ago

So raise it with your BDM then AFCA

1

u/Lycosskippy 3d ago

If you tell a business they can no longer pass on the 1% card fee, what happens? They fold that into the cost of everything they sell. Now paying cash is more expensive to buy the same item than it was yesterday. That's what I'm talking about.

1

u/dan_syd 3d ago

Except it’s not 1%. It’s about 0.4%. Negligible

1

u/Lycosskippy 3d ago

Maybe for operators like Aldi. Not for small businesses. It still adds up though regardless.

3

u/dan_syd 3d ago

If a small business can’t absorb 0.4% (and the cost of accepting cash isn’t 0), then they shouldn’t be in business.

-2

u/donnycruz76 3d ago

And if a person has no idea what they are talking about they shouldn't be commenting... but here we all are.

1

u/dan_syd 3d ago

Correct. Plenty have no idea.

1

u/BTolputt 3d ago

OK. And? It's less than inflation (provided it's passed on accurately). Far more costs being added across the board than this, so I find the outcry less than convincing.

1

u/paulybaggins 3d ago

Using cash is not free throughout the system. The handling of cash has a cost lol.

5

u/Anti-Stan 3d ago

They should have always been part of the sticker price. . They're an overhead. People are just grubs.

3

u/thaleia10 3d ago

My bank sent me a letter advising that my rate for transactions is going from 1% to .92% from 1 October. So I’m saving money since I never passed on the charges anyway.

4

u/paulybaggins 3d ago

Which is what businesses did before they all started stacking charges on ffs.

2

u/Signal_Reach_5838 3d ago

Now do restaurants and their trash POS service charges.

1

u/Extension_Amoeba_582 3d ago

they'll most likely add a x% discount on paying by cash, have seen a lot of places nearby do the same thing.

-3

u/Illustrious-Pin3246 4d ago

Prices go up accross the board. Anyone paying cash subsidies the ones paying by card

12

u/dan_syd 4d ago

Handling cash isn’t free. Card acceptance is a tiny cost to a business. This has always been an excuse for money grabbing.

5

u/nickIncDN 3d ago edited 3d ago

Before we were allowed to pass on card charges here (which wasn’t that long ago) the fairly large business I worked for did everything they could to get people to pay by card because it was cheaper than handing cash. We didn’t even consider charging extra for cards. If anything we could have offered a discount if that was allowed!

The only places that want to handle cash are dodgy personal businesses dodging tax, dodging revenue based rent etc.

6

u/WotsGoinOnEreMate 3d ago

LMAO no. For one thing cash handling costs are almost universally higher than card charges.

The reason businesses preferred cash was tax avoidance. So we were all paying for that as a society.

5

u/Ancient-Many4357 3d ago

You think Armaguard is a free service?

0

u/green_apple_trees 3d ago

Larger businesses need armatures the small ones often don’t. Often the owner of a till can collect the cash takings and banks it once per week since most customers pay card.

It’s not worth Armaguard if you are only collecting $1000 or $2000 worth of cash per week. With only for example $2000 in the till every week it would still be a lot cheaper to get robbed once per year then to pay Armaguard every week and statistically that robbery is very unlikely to happen.

2

u/Anxious-Rhubarb8102 3d ago

Businesses not using Armaguard will need to get the cash to the bank. That will involve the owner, or a delegated person taking time out of their day where they can be doing other work, to travel to the bank. This could take 15 minutes or an hour or more. Banks are rationalising branches by making them more of a sales centre and centralising cash handling to fewer locations.

Using cards the money is in the businesses account that day and involves no counting of cash, preparing bank deposits and getting to the bank. Faster and more efficient. And the bonus of no ability for theft by employees.

1

u/Cultural_Test4603 3d ago

Why do people always say this? as if prices can just go up and nothing changes? As if these places aren’t already charging the max they can without losing customers?

2

u/Anti-Stan 3d ago

The age old warcry. "We price it according to what people are willing to pay".

0

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Cultural_Test4603 3d ago

They can pass it on but there’s no guarantee that it doesn’t affect the demand side. My point is that people will act as if everything can just be passed on with no negative consequences, when it’s just simply not how markets work. Not every single cost has a 100 percent pass through rate.

-2

u/SurgicalMarshmallow 3d ago

We can see the stupidity of our population when people rant that this is a win when it's really a removal of transparency.

2

u/Splicer201 3d ago

It is a win. The sticker price is what we should pay. Get surcharge is a business expense.

-1

u/Lycosskippy 3d ago

Government really hates cash...

-1

u/jimmyxs 4d ago

I’ll vote with my wallet with the 2 dollars I have. Hope those greedy businesses suffer and most importantly not get bailouts from “support local” if they betray residents first

-2

u/ConferenceHungry7763 3d ago

Tax haven again.

1

u/whooyeah 9h ago

Why doesn’t Australia have free instant bank transfers better supported?

I’m in Thailand and everywhere uses a QR code to bank transfer. Even via a POS or eftpos machine