Prepare your business for the end of surcharging

From 1 October 2026, card surcharging will no longer be permitted in Australia, following the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) decision to reform how card payments are priced and disclosed.

This applies to all businesses that accept card payments, not just businesses that use Zeller, and covers all debit, prepaid, and credit cards on the eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, and American Express networks, including international cards.

This article explains what's changing, what happens on your Zeller Account, and what you can do now to prepare.

What's changing

The RBA's reforms introduce two main changes:

1. Surcharging is prohibited. Businesses will no longer be able to add a surcharge for card payments, in-store or online.
2. Reporting becomes more transparent. Card networks and large payment providers will be required to publish average merchant fees, making it easier to compare providers and understand what you're paying.

For full detail on the RBA's reasoning and the policy itself, see the RBA's surcharging announcement.

Key dates

What happens on your Zeller Account

You don't need to do anything to turn off surcharging. If you currently apply a card surcharge through Zeller, this will be automatically disabled on all Zeller Terminals from 1 October 2026. There's no setting to change and no manual step required on your part.

Service Charges are not affected. If you use Zeller's Service Charge feature (for example, a weekend surcharge, a public holiday loading, or a booking fee) this is separate from card surcharging and can continue as normal.

A word of caution: businesses shouldn't try to work around the surcharging ban by describing a card payment surcharge as a different type of fee or charge, for example, relabelling it as an "admin fee" or "service fee" that only applies to card payments. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and eftpos all prohibit surcharging under their card network rules, and businesses that attempt to disguise a surcharge as something else may be engaging in misleading conduct. If you're unsure whether a charge you're planning to introduce is a genuine service fee or would be considered a surcharge, it's worth checking the ACCC website.

What it means if you currently surcharge

If you don't currently surcharge, this change has no impact on your day-to-day operations.

If you do surcharge, you'll need a plan for how to manage the cost of accepting card payments once you can no longer pass it on as a separate charge. Most businesses will do one of the following:

• Absorb the cost into their existing margins.
• Build it into their prices, adjusting the cost of goods or services to account for payment processing costs.
• Use a mix of both, depending on the item or service.

Whichever approach you take, it's worth knowing that your Zeller pricing itself isn't changing. What's changing is that you'll no longer be able to recover this cost from customers as a separate line item.

If you'd like a deeper explanation of how merchant fees work and what makes up the cost of accepting a card payment, see our Guide to EFTPOS & Merchant Fees.

How to prepare

1. Review your pricing

Decide how you'll manage the cost of accepting card payments once surcharging ends, whether that's absorbing it, building it into your prices, or a combination. Do this well ahead of 1 October so any price changes are in place before the deadline.

2. Update your item prices

If you're adjusting prices across your catalogue, Zeller Dashboard supports bulk price updates via CSV import. You can export your existing items, update pricing in a spreadsheet, then re-import the file to update multiple items at once. See How do I import items? for step-by-step instructions.

3. Update your customer-facing materials

Review anywhere your business currently references a card surcharge, including:

• In-store signage and payment terminals
• Printed and online menus
• Your website and booking pages
• Receipts and invoices
• Terms and conditions or FAQs
• Anything your staff say verbally at the point of sale

Any of these that mention a card surcharge should be updated before 1 October 2026 to avoid confusing customers.

4. Brief your team

Make sure your staff understand that surcharging is ending, why it's changing, and how to answer any customer questions during the transition. Consistent messaging at the counter helps avoid confusion, especially in the first few weeks after the change.

Reviewing your surcharge history

If you want to see a summary of the surcharges you've charged to date to help inform your pricing decisions, you can find this in Zeller Dashboard, under Payments > Reports, in the Summary table at the bottom of the page.

Need help?

Our support team is available 24/7:

• Phone: 1800 93 55 37 (1800 ZELLER)
• Email: support@myzeller.com
• SMS: 0437 935 537

This information is general in nature and doesn't take into account your individual circumstances. If you're unsure how the surcharging changes apply to your business, or whether a charge you're planning to introduce may be considered a surcharge, we recommend seeking your own professional advice.