2026-10-26

We checked 5,414 Australian business websites: 1 in 32 still shows a card surcharge

About 1 in 32 Australian small-business websites still shows a card surcharge, three weeks after the ban. We read the public websites of 5,414 businesses in the eight capital cities. Of the 4,285 we could read, 136 (3.2%) still mention a surcharge or fee for paying by card. Most of it sits in places owners rarely re-read: terms pages, PDF menus and old menu pages.

Since 1 October 2026, Australian businesses can't add a surcharge for paying by eftpos, Mastercard or Visa (RBA). The Small Business Ombudsman suggests checking your website, menus, invoices and anything else customers see. So we checked.

How we checked

We took businesses listed in OpenStreetMap with their own website: cafés, restaurants, pubs and bars, takeaway, dentists, doctors and clinics, hairdressers and beauty salons, and trades, across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin. We left out big brands and chains, and scanned the sites in a random order so no city or type of business came first.

For each site we read the home page and up to seven pages a customer would look at for prices (menu, fees, payments, terms, FAQ, bookings, contact), plus up to two PDF menus, and respected each site's robots.txt. 1,129 sites couldn't be read: the domain had lapsed, the site refused us, or the security certificate had expired.

We only counted a card surcharge: a line that ties a surcharge or a percentage fee to paying by card. A public holiday or weekend surcharge doesn't count, because it's still allowed, and neither does a line saying card fees are included in the price.

What we found

By type of business (card surcharge mentions per 100 websites we could read):

By city: Sydney 4.7, Canberra 3.7, Hobart 2.9, Brisbane 2.8, Perth 2.8, Melbourne 2.4, Adelaide 2.4. Darwin had none, but we could only read 38 sites there.

Where the old wording hides

Two patterns stood out:

• Terms pages are the biggest group. Many businesses updated the menu on the counter, but the terms page that says "a 1.5% surcharge applies to all card payments" was written years ago and nobody has opened it since.
• PDF menus are the second. A new menu goes up as a new file; the old PDF stays online, still linked from a page or still found by Google.

The most common wording was a flat percentage on "all card transactions", usually 1% to 1.5%. Some lines were vaguer: "surcharges may apply" or "at the rate of your provider". Renaming it doesn't help. A fee for paying by eftpos, Mastercard or Visa is banned whether it's called a surcharge, an admin fee or a processing fee (ASBFEO).

The fix takes one line

1. Delete the line, or replace it with: "Our prices include all card fees."
2. Replace old PDFs on your website, not just the printed menu: upload the new file over the old one, so links and Google results point to the new version.
3. Check your terms page, booking confirmations and invoice templates. These are written once and rarely re-read.
4. Keep your public holiday surcharge if you have one. It's still allowed, as long as it's shown clearly. Our Christmas 2026 guide has the days for each state.

Check your own website, free

Our free card surcharge check does the same reading for your website: up to 20 pages and 3 PDF menus in about 30 seconds, with every mention listed. If you'd rather we tidy it all up, including PDF menus, booking emails and invoice templates, the clean-up is A$99.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

• LeyMish Labs scan of public business websites, 24 October 2026. Business list from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
• RBA, card surcharging changes from 1 October 2026
• ASBFEO, card surcharging ban

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