Jason Bryce, Freelance Journalist

Those annoying little surcharges for paying with a card or phone will be banned from the 1st of October 2026. That means retailers will have to raise their general prices or absorb the extra cost.

Now the Reserve Bank of Australia is telling Aussie businesses they can legally replace card surcharging with cash discounts:

“Businesses that wish to steer consumers towards other payment methods can do so by providing discounts instead of using surcharges.”

The RBA’s “Removal of Payment Surcharges from 1 October 2026” page explains that eftpos, Visa, Mastercard and Amex will be allowed to ban surcharging. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also says retailers can offer cash discounts.

“Yes. Businesses can offer discounts to consumers who pay using a particular payment method, such as cash or PayID.”

Both the RBA and the ACCC confirm that businesses now imposing a surcharge are expected to absorb those costs or raise prices. The RBA says:

Question: What about the impact of removing surcharging on businesses? Will my business have to absorb the costs?

Answer: Businesses will still incur costs when accepting card payments after surcharging is removed. Those costs can be reflected in a business’s overall pricing, rather than charged as a separate surcharge.

The ACCC says:

Question: Can businesses increase prices when card payment surcharges are removed?

Answer: Yes. Businesses can continue to recover the cost of accepting card payments by incorporating that cost into their overall pricing for the products or services they sell. 

The Reserve Bank can’t possibly be more explicit than this. Cash discounts are legitimate if business prefers cash payments.

Retailers can take down their card surcharge signs and replace them with “Discount for Cash” signs.