Still being charged a card surcharge in Australia? You are not imagining it: a month after the ban took effect, some businesses are still adding one — an old terminal setting that was never switched off, a checkout that was never updated, or a card fee relabelled as something else. This guide is the post-1-October route: what to check, who to ask, and in what order. If you have not yet confirmed your fee is a card surcharge rather than another kind of fee, start with the AU Card Surcharge Refund Checker — it is the companion to this guide.
Why it is still happening
From 1 October 2026, the three designated card networks — eftpos, Mastercard and Visa — introduced no-surcharge rules, and American Express, UnionPay and PayPal also removed surcharging. The RBA confirms the change applies to credit, debit and prepaid cards, and that a card payment made on or after 1 October 2026 cannot be surcharged even if the invoice was issued earlier. So why does the fee still appear?
Systems not updated. Payment providers were expected to remove surcharging functionality from terminals around 1 October 2026, but a business whose terminal, point-of-sale system or online checkout was never updated can still add the fee.
A relabelled fee. A card surcharge renamed a "service fee", "admin fee" or "platform fee" is still a card surcharge if it applies only because you paid by card. The ACCC warns businesses not to avoid the no-surcharge rules by describing a card surcharge as another type of fee, and says doing so may be misleading conduct.
A fee that is not a surcharge at all. Weekend and public holiday surcharges, booking fees and service fees that every customer pays, whatever the payment method, are still allowed. Those are not covered by the ban, and chasing one as a surcharge will go nowhere.
That distinction — fee because you paid by card, versus fee everyone pays — decides everything that follows. Get it wrong and every later step is aimed at the wrong target.
Check first: is it actually a surcharge?
Before you write to anyone, gather three things: your receipt showing the fee as a separate line, the card network on the receipt (eftpos, Mastercard, Visa or American Express — it decides who you report to), and the payment date. A payment made before 1 October 2026 is not covered by the ban; the old excessive-surcharge rule applied then, and it ended on 1 October 2026. A payment made on or after that date is the case this guide covers.
Unsure which side of the line your fee falls on? Run the AU Card Surcharge Refund Checker first — it walks through your fee and points you to the right next step, and this guide picks up from there.
The refund-and-report route
The route below follows the order the ACCC and the RBA set out: business first, then the card network, then the ACCC for misleading pricing, then your bank. Take the steps in order — each one is stronger with the previous one behind it.
Step 1 — Ask the business in writing. Email or an in-app message you can screenshot, not a phone call. Say what you paid, when, on which network, and how much the surcharge was, and ask for that amount back to your card. Keep it short and factual. A template is at the bottom of this page. The ACCC's own advice is the same: contact the business first and ask what the charge is for; if it confirms it is a card surcharge, ask it to refund it.
Step 2 — Report to the card network. If the business refuses or ignores you, report it to the network shown on your receipt — Visa, Mastercard or American Express — or, for eftpos, contact the bank that issued your card. The networks, not a regulator, enforce their no-surcharge rules: the ACCC states this plainly, and the RBA says the card networks are ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with their own rules. Attach your receipt and your written request to the business.
Step 3 — Report misleading pricing to the ACCC. If the fee was hidden until payment, or a card fee was renamed to dodge the rule, report it through the ACCC's report form. Be clear-eyed about what this step does: the ACCC takes pricing complaints, it does not resolve individual refunds. Your report goes on the record and helps the ACCC decide who to investigate — it is not a refund claim. The same applies to your state or territory consumer protection agency, which the RBA notes may be able to help resolve a misleading-pricing issue with the business.
Step 4: your bank and the surcharge alone
If the business still will not refund the surcharge, ask your card issuer whether it will dispute the surcharge amount alone — that is, the surcharge portion only, not the whole purchase — as a charge you did not agree to. Raise it promptly, and attach your receipt and your written request to the business. Whether the bank will run a chargeback for the surcharge alone is the bank's decision under the card scheme rules: no guide can promise that outcome, and a bank that declines is not breaking a rule this guide can point to. This step sits last for a reason — a dispute backed by a written refund request and a network report is a much stronger file than a dispute filed cold.
One practical note: do not dispute the full purchase if you received the goods or services. The amount in question is the surcharge, so the surcharge is the amount to put in front of the business, the network and your bank.
What not to expect
No automatic refund. Nothing in the network rules pays the surcharge back to you by itself. The refund comes from the business, or from a bank dispute the bank agrees to run — both need you to ask.
No individual refund from the ACCC. The ACCC does not enforce the networks' no-surcharge rules and does not resolve individual pricing complaints. Reporting there is about the pattern, not your dollars.
No direct refund from a network report. Reporting to the card network puts pressure on the business through its merchant agreement; it is enforcement against the business, not a refund to you.
No outcome promise. A merchant exemption provided by a network's rules or by law or regulation can still apply — the RBA is explicit that exemptions are a decision for each card network, not the RBA. If an exemption covers your payment, the route above will not produce a refund, and that is a real possibility, not a failure of the steps.
A message you can copy
Send this by email or the business's contact form, and keep a screenshot:
Subject: Refund of card surcharge, [date], receipt [number]
On [date] I paid $[total] by [eftpos / Mastercard / Visa / American Express] at [store or website] and was charged a card surcharge of $[amount]. Since 1 October 2026 the card network rules prohibit surcharges on card payments. Please refund $[amount] to my card. If I do not receive it, I will report the surcharge to [card network] and to the ACCC, and raise it with my bank.
Give the business a short, stated deadline to reply — Ajust's fresh 30 October 2026 guide suggests fourteen days as reasonable for a small amount. That is a practical suggestion, not a legal deadline: no rule in the sources for this guide sets a reply period, so do not present it as one.
FAQ
Usually not. From 1 October 2026, eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and American Express removed surcharging, so a fee added because you paid by card breaches the business's agreement with its card network. Weekend, public holiday and booking fees charged to everyone are still allowed.
Ask the business in writing — an email or in-app message you can screenshot — and ask for the surcharge back. If it refuses or ignores you, report the business to the card network shown on your receipt, and report any misleading pricing to the ACCC.
No. The ACCC does not enforce the card networks' no-surcharge rules and does not resolve individual refunds. It enforces Australian Consumer Law pricing rules, including misleading pricing, and uses reports to decide who to investigate.
Ask your card issuer whether it will dispute the surcharge alone as a charge you did not agree to. Whether it will run a chargeback for the surcharge alone is the bank's decision under the card scheme rules, so raise it promptly with your receipt and your written request to the business.
The label does not decide it. If the fee applies only because you paid by card, the ACCC says describing a card surcharge as another type of fee may be misleading conduct. A genuine fee that every customer pays, whatever the payment method, is not a card surcharge.
General information only — not legal advice. This guide explains the published post-1-October-2026 surcharge rules and the refund-and-report route for consumers. It is not legal advice, and it does not promise a refund, a network outcome, or a bank dispute outcome. Merchant exemptions provided by a card network's rules or by law or regulation may apply to your payment.
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