Small business surcharge ban: four things to pull before October 1

From October 1, small businesses in Australia will be prohibited from adding surcharges on card payments. The digest says this, but it doesn’t say which regulator is enforcing it, which tender types it covers, or what counts as a surcharge versus a price increase. That means you can’t wait for the rulebook—you need to measure your own exposure now, before the first busy weekend in October when the hole will appear mid-service, not on a spreadsheet.

Here’s what to pull by Sunday night:

1. Surcharge revenue last 30/90 days — total dollars, broken down by tender type (Visa, Mastercard, EFTPOS, AMEX, online gateways). 2. POS configuration — exact menu path to the surcharge setting, and who has permission to change it (owner login, manager, etc.). 3. Acquirer name and merchant agreement — the specific clause that governs surcharging (screenshot or PDF page reference).

That’s your deliverable. Now the fork: - If your contract already forbids surcharging, this isn’t a new rule—it’s an existing compliance gap you may have been living with. Your risk is enforcement, not change. - If your contract allows surcharging, this is a change-management sprint: repricing, reconfiguring, retraining whoever takes card payments.

I can’t tell you what the rule is from this excerpt. I can tell you how to find out what you’re exposed to before it bites.