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Understanding Card Surcharge Changes (Australia, October 2026)

From October 2026, changes to Australia’s card payment rules are expected to affect how businesses handle card surcharges.

Overview

From October 2026, changes to Australia’s card payment rules are expected to affect how businesses handle card surcharges. These changes are driven by card networks (such as Visa and Mastercard), not by Zanda or your payment provider.

This article explains what’s changing, what stays the same, and what it means for your practice.

In this article

What’s Changing

The Reserve Bank of Australia has announced changes that will allow card networks (such as Visa, Mastercard and eftpos) to prohibit surcharges on their cards.

If these rules are enforced (as expected): 

  • Businesses will no longer be able to add a surcharge for those card types 
  • This applies regardless of your payment provider (e.g. Stripe, Tyro, or your bank terminal)

In practice, your payment provider will enforce these rules as part of their platform.


What Stays The Same

  • Card processing fees (e.g. Stripe or bank fees) are not being removed 
  • You will still pay payment processing fees as you do today 

What This Means For Your Practice

Right now


There is no change. You can continue applying card surcharges within current ACCC regulations.


From October 2026 (if enforced as expected) 

  • Card surcharges for Visa, Mastercard and eftpos may no longer be allowed 
  • You may need to include payment costs in your pricing, rather than adding them at checkout. For example: Instead of: $100 + 1.8% surcharge 
  • You may move to: $102 with no surcharge

This Is Not Specific to Stripe or Tyro

These changes apply across the payments industry in Australia.

It does not matter whether you use: 

  • Stripe 
  • Tyro 
  • Square 
  • A bank-issued EFTPOS machine 
  • Any other provider

If the card network prohibits surcharging, your provider will be required to enforce it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are card surcharges definitely being removed? 

Not yet. The change allows card networks to prohibit surcharges. This is widely expected, but final implementation depends on those networks.

Are Stripe (or other provider) fees being removed? 

No. Payment processing fees will still apply.

Is this a change made by Zanda or Stripe? 

No. This is driven by the Reserve Bank of Australia and card network rules. For what it’s worth, we disagree with the Reserve Bank’s decisions and think health practices should be able to pass on processing fees as they can now. 

Do I need to change anything now? 

No. You can continue operating as you do now until October 2026.

What to Expect Next

We’re continuing to monitor developments.

As October 2026 approaches, we’ll provide clear guidance on any changes you may need to make if different from the above

Further reading: