A campaign featuring billboards around Canberra Airport and television advertisements has put small business anger over Australia’s credit card surcharge ban in the spotlight, while Labor frontbencher Kristy McBain has said the Reserve Bank should have gone further.
Mortgage broker and tax critic Joseph Dauod is behind the campaign opposing the Reserve Bank’s changes, which removed extra checkout fees on purchases including coffee, clothes and groceries.
The Reserve Bank has said the ban will save consumers $1.6 billion a year. However, many businesses facing higher input costs say they still have to pay banks fees on card transactions and cannot absorb the expense, leaving them to pass it on through higher prices.
Ms McBain said banks should also be prevented from charging small businesses point-of-sale fees.
“I think the RBA made the right decision to ban card surcharging,” Ms McBain told Seven’s Sunrise. “It costs customers about $1.6 billion every year, but they should have taken the next step and banned charging at the point of sale for small businesses.”
She added: “These banks are making billions of dollars in profits every year and small businesses are already paying account keeping fees and a range of other fees directly to their banks.”
“We know the RBA has reduced the fees that banks can charge, but they should have taken that next step and said, if you can’t on-charge it to the customer, then the bank shouldn’t be charging their small business who is already paying a range of account-keeping fees directly to that bank.”
The Federal Government has also faced criticism over the transition, including an Australian Taxation Office plan to stop accepting credit card payments for tax bills from December.
On Friday, the Government said it would cover the cost of allowing the tax office to continue accepting credit card payments from small businesses until mid-2027.
