{"id":919609,"date":"2026-10-07T16:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T16:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919609\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T16:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T16:54:18","slug":"card-surcharge-ban-leaves-small-businesses-scrambling-to-cover-card-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919609\/","title":{"rendered":"Card surcharge ban leaves small businesses scrambling to cover card fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cafe owners Joel and Michael thought Australia\u2019s ban on card surcharges would bring relief to their customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, they say they\u2019ve been left with thousands of dollars in payment fees<\/a> and nowhere to pass them on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joel and Michael run Quarter Two cafe in Melbourne\u2019s Moonee Ponds.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

The brothers who run Quarter Two cafe in Melbourne\u2019s<\/a> Moonee Ponds are among small business owners now weighing up how to absorb the cost without raising prices.<\/p>\n

Businesses<\/a> are still charged every time a customer taps their card, but can no longer add that cost as a separate surcharge.<\/p>\n

The ban was spruiked as a $1.6 billion annual saving for consumers, but some customers are already seeing higher prices and new fees instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a $1.6 billion lie,\u201d Ballers Clubhouse owner Josh Lefers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s assuming the public is too stupid to understand that we\u2019re just going to have to absorb the cost \u2013 either small businesses or customers absorb the cost when venues and businesses have to raise their prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe everyday person is going to have less in their pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Seagull Greek Taverna owner Leonid has stopped accepting cards and now asks customers to pay using PayID.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

Joel and Michael plan to absorb the extra cost rather than increase their menu prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody likes uncertainty, and I think especially for business owners right now, we are definitely in uncertain times,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Other operators are finding ways around card fees altogether.<\/p>\n

Seagull Greek Taverna owner Leonid, in Frankston, has stopped accepting cards and now asks customers to pay using PayID.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever go back to cards, to be honest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting impossible to even run the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent Payments Forum co-founder Brad Kelly said the ban had transferred the cost directly to small operators.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The card surcharge ban was spruiked as a $1.6 billion annual saving for consumers.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve successfully achieved here is removing surcharges, which is what Visa, Mastercard, EFTPOS and AMEX have wanted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve transferred that fee impost straight onto small businesses at a time they can least afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said some businesses had already introduced charges that looked similar to the old surcharges.<\/p>\n

One NSW A Current Affair viewer said an 11-cent surcharge on an order of hot chips had disappeared, only to be replaced by a 23-cent \u201cplatform fee\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another cafe has increased its prices by the exact amount previously charged as a card surcharge.<\/p>\n

Customers told A Current Affair they were noticing higher prices at some venues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Independent Payments Forum co-founder Brad Kelly said the ban had transferred the cost directly to small operators.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of places have taken their coffee up to $6.50, $7,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n

Others said they were considering returning to cash, with one customer saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they offered me a discount, I would pay in cash. Yeah,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n

Kelly said credit cards remained important for households and businesses managing cash flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to consider that we just don\u2019t throw all credit cards out as some kind of bad thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that a lot of businesses and people use them to manage cash flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked who would benefit most from the new rules, he pointed to the major payment companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the winners are Visa and Mastercard. These are enormous American technology companies, and they sit very quietly in the background,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Joel and Michael said small businesses needed more support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really need to look at helping small businesses grow, rather than keep pushing them to shut down and struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cafe owners Joel and Michael thought Australia\u2019s ban on card surcharges would bring relief to their customers. Instead,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-919609","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\/919609","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=919609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}