What the 1 October Australian surcharge ban means for your venue and your card acceptance costs

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced a series of payments reforms coming into effect on 1 October 2026. The first major change, and the one you've likely seen headlines about, is that surcharging will no longer be permitted on eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and American Express payments.

The other change is that the RBA is cutting the wholesale cost of accepting card payments. This change has received far less press coverage, but it’s the one that lowers what your venue pays.

As a ROLLER Payments customer, the savings from the reduced card acceptance costs will reach you automatically. However, this isn’t the case with all payment providers. We’ll walk through what each change means for your venue, what you need to do before 1 October, and why ROLLER’s pricing model ensures you’re benefiting from the wholesale price cuts.

Change 1: The surcharge ban

From 1 October 2026, Australian venues cannot charge guests a surcharge that covers the cost of accepting payment on an eftpos, Mastercard or Visa card. This covers debit, credit and prepaid cards on those networks.

American Express is not part of the RBA's reforms, but Amex announced separately in June 2026 that it will not permit surcharging on Amex transactions from the same date.

What do ROLLER customers need to do to prepare?

If you don’t currently apply a card surcharge, there is nothing you need to do. Skip ahead to Change 2, which is the part that affects you.

If you do apply a card surcharge, you’ll need to switch it off in ROLLER before 1 October, and check your website, signage, receipts and booking confirmations for any wording that mentions a card surcharge. You can follow the step-by-step guide in our Help Centre: Updated card surcharge rules in Australia.

What about booking fees and service fees?

The ban only targets fees charged specifically because a customer paid by card. The RBA and ACCC provide guidance on what’s covered by this ban as well as other relevant regulations. The rules in this space are complex, so it’s always best to seek your own legal advice when setting pricing and fees.

Change 2: The cost of accepting cards is going down

This change has not been as widely publicized as the surcharge ban, and as a ROLLER Payments customer, you’ll benefit from it immediately.

Every card payment carries an interchange fee, which is a wholesale cost set by the card networks and paid to the bank that issued the guest's card. It is generally the largest single component of what it costs your venue to accept a card payment. On 1 October, the RBA is lowering the cap significantly.

How much you save with these changes comes down to what your guests pay with.

• Consumer credit cards see the biggest change. The cap drops from 0.80% to 0.30%. If a large share of your payments come from personal Visa and Mastercard credit cards, you'll see the biggest benefit.
• Debit cards see a smaller change. Most debit transactions already price close to the new cap, so a debit-heavy venue should not expect as much change here.
• Commercial credit cards remain unchanged with a 0.80% cap interchange fee. School group bookings, corporate functions and other payments made on business cards will cost the same in October as they do today.
• Cards issued overseas are covered by a separate change coming on 1 April 2027, when a 1.0% cap applies where fees currently average around 1.75%. If international visitors are a meaningful share of your admissions, that is a second saving, six months behind the first.

Why your savings depend on your card mix

Card mix is not something most operators have reason to think about until a change like this one. A few things tend to drive it:

• Your online vs in-person payment split. Card-not-present transactions and recurring billing (like memberships) have a different interchange fee than card-present payments, so a venue that pre-sells most of its tickets online has a different cost profile to one taking most payments at the gate.
• Group, school and corporate bookings. These bookings are frequently paid using commercial cards, where interchange is unchanged.
• International visitors. The foreign card cap does not take effect until 1 April 2027, so there is a six-month window where your international costs will be the same as today.

Whether you see that reduction depends on how you are priced

ROLLER Payments uses interchange++ (IC++) pricing. Interchange is passed through to you at cost, scheme fees are passed through at cost, and our margin sits on top as a separate line. For ROLLER customers, when the RBA cuts the interchange cap on 1 October, the interchange line on your statement will be reduced and you’ll receive the full benefit immediately.

For your venue, that means:

• The reduction reaches you automatically, and any payments made on or after 1 October will reflect the new caps.
• There is nothing to renegotiate. No plan change, no new contract, no conversation with us required.
• You can see it. Your statements already break out interchange, scheme fees and our margin separately, which is the same breakdown the RBA is now requiring large acquirers to start publishing.

How much this will save your venue depends on your card mix, your average transaction value, and the split between online and in-venue payments.

What about blended or flat-rate pricing?

Not every payment provider works this way. Under a flat or blended rate, you pay a single headline percentage covering everything. Interchange still exists, but it sits inside your provider’s costs rather than appearing as a line on your statement.

That matters on 1 October. When the interchange cap drops, your payment provider’s costs drop. However, your blended or flat rate stays as your contract sets it.

Flat rate pricing has no automatic mechanism for moving a wholesale cost reduction across to you, some providers will choose to reprice, and some won’t.

The RBA has built a check into the reforms for exactly this reason. Large acquirers and providers will be required to publish how much of the interchange reduction they’ve passed on to merchants, and to report costs split into interchange, scheme fees, and acquirer margin.

What to do now

If you are an Australian venue and currently apply a card surcharge:

1. Turn it off in ROLLER before 1 October 2026. Follow this step-by-step guide in the Help Centre.
2. Check your website, signage, receipts and booking confirmations for card surcharge wording.

If you do not apply a card surcharge: there is nothing to do.

Either way, your card costs will drop on 1 October and you’ll see the change on your ROLLER Payments reports. If you would like more detail on how these changes might affect your venue, reach out to our technical support team.

These changes apply to venues operating in Australia. ROLLER Payments customers in other regions are not affected by the RBA's reforms.

This article is general information and not financial or legal advice. For guidance on how the surcharging rules apply to your business, see the RBA and ACCC's guidance on card surcharges or seek your own advice.