RBA considers banning card payment surcharges in Australia

[gfm]

That is fine, just add it to the price that is advertised to the consumer. Put it on the price tag. Instead of adding at the end.

 

[gfm]

We dont want surcharges depending on the cost to the merchant (these should already be part of the price!) The price should be the price!

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

We dont want surcharges depending on the cost to the merchant (these should already be part of the price!) The price should be the price!

Then the people with cash or debit cards will be discriminated against and have to pay a higher price?

 

[Quickstatus]

So a direct merchant fee of 1.45% (square) can end up being 1.7% to the end user.

it's the cost of doing business.
We don't see business charging a fee for handling cash.

 

[Viridis]

The airlines method of surcharging is pretty fair. With the exception of Rex which requires you to visit an airport sales desk to pay, the major airlines do actually provide convenient ways of paying the advertised price without any surcharge. If someone wants credit card points on top of it, it’s only fair that they pay a surcharge.

I disagree. Perhaps, what I find most irritating is paying many thousands of dollars to, say, Qantas with a Qantas branded credit card and being charged a fee for the privilege of doing so.

I’m tempted to rock up to the airport with $12k in cash to buy my ticket and see how much they enjoy the costs of handling that.

As far as I’m concerned they’re just taking the p***

I completely agree with @Quickstatus, it’s the cost of doing business.

 

[dajop]

it's the cost of doing business.
We don't see business charging a fee for handling cash.

For a quite a number of small business’s I bet cash costs considerably less to accept than electronic forms of payment in terms of the idea that cash can result in undeclared sales.

I’ve seen at least one business imposing a 2% surcharge for electronic forms of payment whilst also offering a 5% discount for cash. I wonder why.

 

[gregff]

Great Britain and the whole EU zone have been able to ban ALL card surcharges (without the need to discriminate between credit and debit) without trouble. Australia should follow their lead.

 

[RealtimeY]

EU interchange fees are capped at 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit.
Australian caps are 0.22% and 0.88%
No caps in USA.

If they were to ban card surcharges there would probably be further downward pressure on interchange fees and therefore card benefits...

 

[Happy Dude]

This is already the law. Businesses can’t impose a card surcharge if they only accept card payments, because in effect that means they lied on the price tag. Surcharges are only permitted where customers can choose to pay in cash but don’t.

This isn't correct. For a business that does not accept cash (which is allowed), that business can impose a card surcharge. But the surcharge must be included in the displayed price (or as you correctly say, "it means they lied on the price tag").

It's interesting how often this topic is trotted out on radio.

Edit: to add link to ACCC website (confirming what card-only businesses can and must do)

Card surcharges

If a business charges a payment surcharge, it must be able to prove the costs it's based on. If there's no way to pay without a surcharge, the surcharge must be included in the displayed price.

www.accc.gov.au

 

[gregff]

EU interchange fees are capped at 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit.
Australian caps are 0.22% and 0.88%
No caps in USA.

If they were to ban card surcharges there would probably be further downward pressure on interchange fees and therefore card benefits...

Maybe that sounds like a good plan then. Ban all surchages and the fees to merchants can go down.