Credit Card Surcharges UPDATE

Another day and more news has been forthcoming from the Reserve Bank of Australia on the decisions around surcharges for Credit Cards. The implementation of the changes are going to take place over 2 years.

If you would like to take the time to read all about the surcharges, you can do so here, here and here! We'll summarise the info for you below, but if you charge surcharges on Credit or Debit cards, you should obtain professional advice. If you don't charge a surcharge for any cards, you should be proud and join the Surcharge Free movement.

The roll-out of the changes first come into effect for large retailers on September 1st 2016. You are a large retailer if your gross revenue is over $25 million, you have business assets to the value of $12.5 million, or you have more than 50 employees. All other retailers are to follow suit from September 1st 2017.

Debit card surcharges have been reduced from 12cents to 8cents for every transaction, regular credit cards at 0.5% and premium Visa and Mastercard at 0.8%. That means no more of those signs at the POS saying "50c charge on all Credit/EFTPOS sales". 

"Retailers will no longer be able to charge more than the cost of processing the transaction under the new rules, which affect Eftpos, Debit MasterCard, MasterCard Credit, Visa Debit, Visa Credit and American Express cards."

The ACCC has sent a warning to retailers that there will have been more than enough time to change your sales practices. Consumers are advised to "Dob in a Wrongdoer" for the ACCC to investigate through their standard consumer complaints line.