Research from Money.com.au, conducted by Primara Research, analysing RBA retail payments data to March 2025, reveals Australian merchants paid $175 million more in card fees over the last year, not because Australians spent more, but because the fees merchants are being charged went up.
The increases vary by card scheme, with Visa, Mastercard and eftpos all rising while Amex fell, suggesting the schemes themselves are driving the changes.
From October 2026, merchants are banned from passing card fees on as surcharges. That cost doesn’t disappear. It gets buried in the price of everything shoppers buy.
Debit is where the damage is
Most Australians think of debit as the ‘free’ option. It isn’t, and it’s getting more expensive. Debit fees drove $147 million of the $175 million increase, with all three major schemes lifting their rates in the last year:
- Visa debit: up 8%, from 0.53% to 0.57%
- Mastercard debit: up 4%, from 0.57% to 0.59%
- eftpos: up 5%, from 0.40% to 0.42%
Merchants paid $3.5 billion in debit card fees alone over the 12 months to March 2025. At December 2024 rates, that figure would have been $3.39 billion.
$8 billion and rising
Total card fees paid by Australian merchants now sit at approximately $8 billion annually, across $1.14 trillion in card transaction volume. Credit cards still account for 59% of total fees paid, but it is debit where fees are accelerating fastest.
“Australians tap their debit card assuming it is the low-cost option, but these figures show that assumption is increasingly wrong,” said Peter Drennan, Head of Research and Data at Primara Research.
“Every fee increase gets absorbed somewhere. Right now merchants can show it as a surcharge. From October, that transparency disappears, and it gets baked into prices instead.” The RBA’s surcharge ban is designed to simplify payments for consumers. But with card fees rising and no mechanism left to itemise the cost, Australians will be paying more without knowing it, says Primara Research.
