Card Surcharge Ban from 1 October 2026 — What It Means for an Australian Clinic

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Card surcharge ban — 1 October 2026

What the Reserve Bank decision changes for clinic payments, the other dates around it, and where to start planning. Pick a topic below.

🇦🇺 AustraliaRBA · Department of Health
📋 Verified from: RBA media release 26-10: Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging — Conclusions Paper and the Department of Health simplified FAQs on assignment of Medicare benefits for bulk billing. Checked 7 October 2026. General information only — not financial, legal or tax advice.
⚡ The 30-second version

What changed: From 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank has removed surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit cards on the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks. Lower caps on the interchange fees businesses pay also start on that date.

What follows later: foreign-card interchange caps and some transparency requirements start on 1 April 2027.

Why clinics notice: any practice that passed card costs on to patients as a surcharge can no longer do so on these cards. The release does not list industry exemptions — read the Conclusions Paper it links to for the full detail.

Pick a topic
🧮 Free planning tools (Clinic Admin)
No login. Per the tools page, numbers you enter stay in your browser. Figures are your own estimates — check them with your payment provider and accountant.
Card Surcharge Ban Calculator →
Models the surcharge income that ends against any fee savings your provider passes on. Its interchange cap figures are assumptions, not RBA-published numbers.
Fee Recovery Calculator →
Models wage and cost rises against private fees, bulk-billing mix and sessions to see the gap to close.
Software Stack Cost Check →
Adds up monthly clinic software subscriptions.
Admin Time and ROI Calculator →
Estimates time and cost spent on compliance and accreditation admin. Its time-saving percentages are illustrative assumptions.
Assignment of Benefit Readiness Checklist →
Six questions on software, reception process, consent wording and record keeping. Applies to bulk-billed services — see the Assignment of Benefit topic above.
🔔 Disclosure: Clinic Admin is a paid product (A$49/month per clinic, whole team) built by the AskMyGP team. No outside company edits our content — see our editorial independence policy. Try the free demo (no sign-up) →
This page summarises published government decisions for general information. It is not financial, legal, tax or accounting advice. Confirm how the changes apply to your practice with your payment provider, accountant and the primary sources linked above.