RBA Surcharge Changes: What It Means For Platforms
The RBA’s decision to remove card payment surcharges from October 2026 raises an obvious question for platforms: What happens to platform fees?
There’s been some confusion early on, so it’s worth being clear.
Surcharges and platform fees are not the same
Surcharges are applied directly to the end customer at the point of payment, to cover the cost of processing the transaction.
Platform fees are part of how a platform prices and delivers its service to merchants.
The removal of surcharging affects how payment costs are passed through at checkout. It does not prevent platforms from charging for the value they provide.
What changes?
For platforms that currently rely on surcharging, the main change is:
- payment costs can no longer be passed through as a visible line item
- those costs need to be absorbed or factored into pricing
That may mean:
- reviewing fee structures
- adjusting how costs are recovered
- rethinking how pricing is communicated to merchants
What doesn’t change
A few important points:
- platforms can still charge fees to merchants
- platform pricing models remain intact
- payments still function the same way underneath
The role of the platform, enabling transactions, managing flow of funds, and delivering value to merchants, doesn’t change.
What platforms should do now
There’s no immediate action required ahead of October 2026.
But it’s a good time to review:
- how payment costs are currently managed
- where margin may be exposed
- how pricing models could evolve if needed
- how fees are presented
For many platforms, the opportunity isn’t in redesigning the model entirely. It’s in tightening how payments are optimised underneath it.
Looking ahead
The removal of surcharging is one part of a broader shift.
Payments are becoming more measurable and more closely tied to business performance, for platforms as much as for merchants.
The platforms that adapt quickest won’t be the ones making the biggest changes. They’ll be the ones that already understand where value is created, and where it’s lost.
If you want to sense-check how this might play out in your model, we’re happy to talk it through.
