Surcharge ban: ATO among organisations no longer taking credit card payments
Key takeaways
- The Reserve Bank banned merchants from charging customers for paying via credit or debit card from 1 October this year.
- While this will save Australians money, some organisations are refusing to accept card payments instead of absorbing these transaction costs.
- What's next: The ATO, Macquarie's DEFT, and several other platforms have already announced they won't take cards anymore.
Australian consumers no longer have to pay credit card surcharges. This is good news, but it's a bit more complicated than it looks.
Businesses still have transaction costs for accepting card payments. They just can't pass them on to consumers.
As a result, some businesses have already announced they will no longer accept payments via card. Here's a list of some of the most prominent examples.
Is your credit card changing too?
See which credit cards have changed after the card surcharge ban
The Australian Tax Office
The Australian Tax Office will stop accepting payments via credit card from 30 November 2026.
Anyone with a tax bill will have to pay it by BPAY, direct debit, electronic funds transfer, Australia Post or phone.
"It is not tenable for the ATO to absorb the costs associated with accepting credit cards on an ongoing basis," said ATO Commissioner of Taxation Rob Heferen.
DEFT
DEFT, Macquarie Bank's payment processing service, announced in August that it would no longer accept debit or credit card payments from 1 October.
DEFT customers will have to use BPAY, PayID or bank transfers to make payments via the platform.
Stratapay
Stratapay is a payments platform that services the strata industry, allowing owners corporations and strata companies to handle strata fees, levies and other payments.
From 1 October, Stratapay announced that strata payments can no longer be made by card unless "a decision to accept card payments has been recorded for your strata scheme."
In effect this means strata schemes that use Stratapay must choose to accept card payments individually and pay the costs associated with the transactions.
RentMate
RentMate also ended card payments from 1 October 2026. Anyone using the service to pay their rent will have to use BPAY or set up direct debits instead.
Sources
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