The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is advocating for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to eliminate surcharges on all credit and debit card transactions. These fees impose significant costs on consumers, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. In response, the federal government has indicated it may ban debit card surcharges starting next year, pending the RBA’s review outcomes.
In its submission to the RBA, the CBA has pushed for a comprehensive ban on all surcharging, aligning Australia with practices in the UK and many European countries, where such fees are prohibited. Currently, surcharges range from 0.5% to 1.5% and exist to help businesses cover the merchant fees charged for electronic payments, as outlined under Australian consumer law. However, the CBA argues that merely removing debit surcharges would leave credit card users facing similar issues regarding fee transparency and could lead to higher transaction costs for credit card payments.
Details regarding the CBA’s submission are expected to be disclosed soon, with sources indicating that a total ban could effectively resolve surcharging discrepancies across the board.