{"id":898292,"date":"2026-09-19T23:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898292\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T23:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:54:20","slug":"aussie-small-businesses-brace-for-card-surcharge-ban-as-payment-costs-bite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898292\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie small businesses brace for card surcharge ban as payment costs bite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: It was pitched as a $1.6 billion win for Aussie shoppers, but the looming credit card surcharge ban hands independent small businesses a grim ultimatum.<\/p>\n

Vendors say they\u2019re now stuck between losing their paper-thin profits to bank fees or losing customers<\/a> to higher prices.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can this be happening to businesses when we already have so much to pay?\u201d Cascie Heart, right, said.\u00a0Cascie Heart<\/p>\n

While the October 1 ban stops extra charges at the checkout, banks and providers will still charge merchant processing fees \u2013 leaving them with no choice but to absorb the costs or pass them on elsewhere.<\/p>\n

For Brisbane<\/a> business owner Cascie Heart, the numbers are already stacking up against her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was stunned,\u201d she told nine.com.au on first hearing of the ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can this be happening to businesses when we already have so much to pay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I honestly don\u2019t know what options we have left.\u2019<\/p>\n

Cascie Heart, small business owner<\/p>\n

Her company, Little Bread Winner, which makes Australian-made breadboards, has paid $6000 in face-to-face transaction fees this year.<\/p>\n

Heart\u2019s busiest trading period hasn\u2019t even begun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Banning card surcharges was pitched as a $1.6 billion win for shoppers, but for small business owners, it serves up a grim ultimatum.\u00a0Cascie Heart<\/p>\n

Depending on sales volume and payment methods, Heart said processing fees currently cost her between $25 and $80 every single day.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, her Shopify fee is also set to rise from 1.6 per cent to 1.7 per cent on October 1\u2013 the same day the surcharge ban kicks in.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven we’re required to use a payment gateway to sell online, we have no real choice if we want to keep our store running,\u201d Heart said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like extortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know what options we have left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yates operates a hybrid space housing co-working desks, photo and podcast studios, and a second-hand clothing store.\u00a0Instagram\/@theexchangenoosa<\/p>\n

In Noosa, Jo Yates is considering taking cards off the table for part of her new business, The Exchange \u2013 a multipurpose space combining co-working desks, photography and podcast studios, and a second-hand clothing store.<\/p>\n

Yates said keeping card payments across every offering could cost her hundreds of dollars each month.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jo Yates said keeping card payments could cost her hundreds of dollars each month.\u00a0Jo Yates<\/p>\n

But removing them will inevitably cause friction for customers who now have to pay manually via bank transfer.<\/p>\n

The dilemma is even trickier in her second-hand clothing store, where sellers set the prices of items sold on consignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t control the prices our sellers set for their clothing, so we can\u2019t simply increase prices to cover the processing fees,\u201d Yates said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means we have to decide whether we take the hit or our consignment sellers do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually don\u2019t know which of these options I\u2019m going to take, but none of them seems to be a great solution for either myself or my customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hospitality<\/a> entrepreneur Steve Sidd is preparing for the same October deadline across Catering HQ\u2019s 16 venues, which employ<\/a> about 500 people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hospitality entrepreneur Steve Sidd, right, is preparing for the surcharge ban across Catering HQ\u2019s 16 venues.\u00a0Trent van der Jagt<\/p>\n

Sidd said putting up menu prices every time another expense arrives is not a realistic fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t simply pass every additional cost directly on to the customer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiners are already managing their own cost-of-living pressures, and there is a ceiling on what people are prepared to spend when dining out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of blanket price hikes, Sidd\u2019s team has spent weeks reviewing dishes, ingredients, and operational margins to absorb the upcoming processing hit.<\/p>\n

Sidd noted that transaction costs are coming on top of higher wages, food, utilities, insurance, and rent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHospitality margins are already extremely tight.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven what appears to be a small additional percentage can translate into significant dollars across a high-volume operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small Business Minister Anne Aly told nine.com.au the changes are a win for both small businesses and their customers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Small Business Minister Anne Aly.\u00a0Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 1 October, lower interchange fee caps set by the RBA will come into effect alongside the surcharge changes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe RBA expects small businesses to benefit most because they tend to pay fees closer to the existing caps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RBA\u2019s changes are also making the system more transparent, so small businesses can actually see what they\u2019re being charged, compare providers and get a better deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis comes on top of the broader support we\u2019re delivering for small business, including making the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent to improve cash flow and give businesses more certainty to invest.\u201d <\/p>\n

Majority of consumers unaware of major card change coming<\/p>\n

A huge number of Australian credit and debit card holders remain in the dark about the upcoming ban on surcharges<\/a>, new research shows.<\/p>\n

Extra fees for payments will be abolished on October 1\u00a0following a decision by the\u00a0Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)<\/a>, in a move it estimates will save consumers about $1.6 billion every year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Surcharges on credit and debit cards will be axed from October.\u00a0Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n

But a survey of 1000 people by comparison site Finder released on Tuesday shows 43 per cent of Australians are unaware of the upcoming shake-up.<\/p>\n

Scrutiny of RBA data shows Australians made $475 billion in credit card purchases and $696 billion in debit card transactions during the 12 months to June 2026.<\/p>\n

The Finder analysis also tracked consumer sentiment about financial institutions recovering money by raising interest rates<\/a> or card fees and cutting customer loyalty programs.<\/p>\n

Banks will take a hit of about $600 million per year when the surcharge ban comes into force.<\/p>\n

This will include lower interchange fees, which are paid by businesses to banks.<\/p>\n

If their card provider responded to the ban by increasing annual fees, 30 per cent of responders in the Finder survey say they\u2019d respond by cancelling their credit card.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive: It was pitched as a $1.6 billion win for Aussie shoppers, but the looming credit card surcharge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-898292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}