FAQs: Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging

The RBA has received queries as part of its Consultation on the Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging. In the interests of informed public debate, the RBA is publishing further information as part of its commitment to transparency and open access to information. The RBA may publish further information periodically on this page.

Data on surcharging

The data below provides high-level statistics on merchant surcharging practices on card transactions in Australia. These data were provided to the RBA from various acquirers and payment service providers. The aggregated dataset contains information on more than 800,000 merchants for the 2023/24 financial year.

How much do consumers pay in surcharges each year?

In the 2023/24 financial year, consumers paid around $1.2 billion in surcharges, equating to around $60 per card-using adult.

This data was sourced from a range of payment service providers including banks, fintechs and other specialist acquirers. The RBA used this dataset, in combination with other aggregate data the RBA collects about the Australian payments system to estimate the total value of surcharges that consumers paid.

How many merchants choose to surcharge? Which merchants surcharge most often?

In total, around 10 per cent of merchants chose to impose a surcharge. For those merchants that surcharge, on average, credit card transactions attracted higher surcharges than debit card transactions (Table 1). Medium-sized businesses surcharged more frequently than small or large businesses (Table 2). Around one-third of merchants in the hospitality industry applied a surcharge, compared to just 6 per cent of merchants in the professional services industry (Table 3).

Further information on card transaction surcharging can be found in the 2022 Consumer Payments Survey, such as statistics on the share of card transactions that faced a surcharge and how this has changed over time.