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Card Surcharge Ban in Australia: Why the Best Operators Were Barely Impacted
Australia's card surcharge ban began 1 October 2026. Learn how salons, spas and clinics protect margin with deposits, memberships and automation.
Sunayana Reddy
Since 1 October, you can no longer add a card surcharge at checkout. The salons, spas and clinics feeling it least never relied on a checkout fee to protect their margin. They had already built it into how they book, bill and keep clients.
At a glance
- From 1 October 2026, Australian businesses can no longer add a surcharge to card payments. The Reserve Bank of Australia confirmed the change in March 2026, and it applies to credit and debit cards alike, including EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale), Visa, American Express, and Mastercard.
- Card acceptance still costs money. Your merchant fees apply as before.
- A surcharge typically recovered a small slice of card cost. No-shows, late cancellations and failed membership payments cost most businesses far more.
- Businesses using automated confirmations and reminders see a 38% reduction in no-shows (Zenoti data).
- At businesses running memberships and loyalty programmes, around 80% of sales come from returning clients (2025 Beauty and Wellness Benchmark Report).
Two businesses, one regulation
Picture two businesses in the same suburb. It doesn't matter whether they're hair salons, day spas, or skin clinics. Similar size, similar prices, similar clientele.
Business A added a surcharge to every card payment. It never took deposits. There was a cancellation policy on the website, but nobody enforced it because nobody wanted the awkward phone call. On 1 October, the surcharge disappeared and the owner is now trying to work out where that money comes from.
Business B had been quietly closing its revenue leaks for years. Clients pay a deposit when they book online. Members are billed automatically each month. If someone cancels inside 24 hours, the fee is charged to the card on file without anyone having to pick up the phone. When the surcharge went, Business B lost a small line on the receipt and nothing else. For Business B, 1 October was a Thursday.
The difference between them isn't size, location or how busy they are. It's where they chose to protect their revenue. Business A protected it at the checkout. Business B protected it before the client ever walked in.
That's the real story of the surcharge ban. The checkout fee was never the strong lever. It just felt like one.
What actually changed on 1 October
Here's the short version. The Reserve Bank of Australia reviewed merchant card payment costs and surcharging, and published its conclusions on 31 March 2026. From 1 October 2026, businesses can no longer add a surcharge to card payments, whether debit, prepaid or credit, on EFTPOS, Visa or Mastercard. The rule is enforced through the card schemes and your payment provider rather than a new law, so a business that keeps surcharging risks fines and a breach of its provider's terms.
One thing worth knowing: the cost of accepting cards hasn't gone away. Your merchant fees still apply. What's changed is that you can't show that cost to the client as a separate line any more. It has to be covered by how you run the business.
Actionable Tip:
If you're on Zenoti Payments, the surcharge was removed for you automatically on 1 October, across the point of sale, online booking, payment links and membership collections. The setting is now greyed out and can't be turned back on. Your historical surcharge data stays in your reports, so nothing is lost. The only thing left to do is make sure your website, price lists and booking confirmations no longer mention a card fee, and let your team know so nobody mentions it to clients out of habit.
Four habits of the businesses that were barely impacted
The operators who took 1 October in their stride share a handful of habits. None of them are complicated. Most of them are just decisions made once and then automated.
1. They collect commitment up front
Deposits at the time of booking are the single most effective protection against an empty slot. A client who has paid $50 towards a colour, a facial or a laser session turns up for it.
Deposits also have a quiet advantage over no-show fees: clients rarely dispute a deposit they chose to pay, but they will sometimes dispute a fee charged after the fact. If you're only going to do one thing from this list, do this one.
Industry Insight:
Businesses using structured digital workflows with automated confirmations and reminders see a 38% reduction in no-shows (Zenoti data). Pair that with a deposit and the empty-slot problem largely takes care of itself.
2. They enforce the policy automatically, not personally
Most salons, spas, and clinics have a cancellation policy. Far fewer apply it, because applying it means a conversation nobody enjoys. The best operators take the person out of it. The policy lives in the booking system, the client agrees to it when they book, and if they cancel inside the window the fee is charged to the card on file.
Nobody has to be the bad guy. The system is simply doing what the client already agreed to. And because it's consistent, clients stop testing it.
3. They've turned regulars into members
A client who visits every six weeks is a regular. A client who pays monthly for a membership or a treatment plan is revenue you can count on before the month starts. That difference is what makes a change at the checkout immaterial.
Membership-based businesses also tend to be more resilient because the billing runs itself. Payments collect automatically, and if a card fails the system retries on a schedule rather than waiting for someone at the front desk to notice three weeks later.
Industry Insight:
At businesses running membership and loyalty programmes, around 80% of total sales come from returning clients (2025 Beauty and Wellness Benchmark Report). Recurring revenue isn't just nicer to have. It's what protects you when something outside your control changes.
4. They don't spend Sunday night reconciling
Here's a cost that never shows up on a merchant statement: the hours spent matching EFTPOS takings to appointments, chasing a $40 discrepancy, re-keying figures into the accounting software. For many owners, the admin cost of payments is bigger than the processing cost.
Integrated payments fix this because the payment, the appointment and the client record are the same record. Takings match the diary automatically. Payouts land in the bank and are matched to deposits without anyone opening a spreadsheet. The time saved is worth more than any surcharge ever recovered.
How an 18-salon Brisbane group made memberships work in Australia
Memberships are everywhere in US salons and spas. In Australia they're still unusual, which is exactly why they work so well for the businesses that offer them.
Epic Hair Salon runs 18 locations across Brisbane and the Gold Coast with around 200 hairdressers and apprentices. Founder Brendan came to the industry from retail operations, not from behind the chair, and he built the business by borrowing what worked elsewhere. The loyalty programme is modelled on airline schemes like Qantas. The booking app works the way a hotel or airline app works. And memberships are treated as a core part of the model, not an experiment.
"Memberships are a part of our business. They work very well," Brendan told the Growth Diaries podcast. "We have two main types. One is they get credit on their account. It's like a gym membership, money comes out of their account every week. And then the other ones are unlimited memberships, like the blow-dry side of things."
Part of the appeal, he says, is that few competitors offer them. The other part is how members are treated once they're in: "It's about having the whole CRM set up. It's emailing the people that are on memberships, making them feel how special they are. They feel like they've got that luxury experience just through having a membership."
It was also one of the reasons Epic moved to Zenoti in 2018: "It was one of the only software we could find that did memberships."
The result is a business where a meaningful share of revenue is committed before the week starts, and where loyalty is something clients pay into rather than something the salon hopes for. That's the kind of business a surcharge ban doesn't rattle.
Where each habit lives in your software
None of this needs a separate tool. If you run your business on an all-in-one platform, each habit is a setting rather than a project.
| Habit | What it protects | Where it lives in Zenoti |
|---|---|---|
| Collect commitment up front | Revenue lost to no-shows | Deposits collected during online booking; card on file for phone and walk-in bookings; Auto-pay that holds the card at check-in and charges at checkout |
| Enforce the policy automatically | Revenue lost to late cancellations | Cancellation and no-show fees set at organisation or centre level, flat or percentage, with your own hours-before window |
| Members, not just regulars | Monthly cash flow | Memberships and packages with automatic collection; failed payments retried on a schedule |
| Integrated payments | Admin hours and errors | Payments matched to appointments automatically; payouts reconciled to bank deposits; funds in your account in a few business days in Australia; accounting integrations |
One Australian detail worth adding: buy now, pay later. Klarna is more popular with Australian beauty and wellness clients than almost anywhere else, and for higher-ticket treatments or term memberships they can be the difference between a booking and a "maybe next month". Zenoti supports them through online payments, so clients can split the cost without you carrying the risk.
If you're Business A today: your next 30 days
It's early October. The surcharge is already gone and you can't bring it back, so the question is what you put in its place. You don't need to do everything at once. Here's a sensible order.
This week: tidy up what clients see. Check your website, price lists and booking confirmations for any mention of a card fee and remove it. Tell your team the surcharge is gone. If you'd been quoting prices "plus card fee", now's the time to show one clean price.
Next week: turn on deposits. Start with your highest-value services and the ones most often missed. A modest deposit, say 20 to 30% or a flat amount, is enough. Add it to online booking first, where clients already expect it.
Week three: set the cancellation window and fee. Pick a window (24 hours is common), pick a fee, and put both in the booking confirmation so clients agree to it up front. Then let the system apply it.
Week four: launch or re-launch your membership. If you have one, promote it at checkout and in your next email. If you don't, start with one simple tier: a monthly facial or a blow-dry plan. Switch on automatic collection so you're not chasing payments.
Actionable Tip:
You may decide a price increase is the right call for your business, and that's a perfectly reasonable response to higher costs. If you do, make it a deliberate one. Pull three reports first: revenue by service, your no-show and cancellation rate, and how much of your income comes from repeat clients. Then raise prices where the value clearly supports it rather than across the board. And whatever you decide on pricing, put the four habits above in place as well. A price rise covers the fee. Deposits, enforced policies, memberships and integrated payments make the whole business harder to knock off course.
Where this is heading
Payment regulation in Australia isn't going to get looser. The RBA has signalled further changes to card fees and more transparency on what merchants pay, and there'll be more after that.
The businesses that will be fine are the ones that protect revenue before the appointment rather than at the till. Deposits, enforced policies, memberships and integrated payments don't care what the surcharge rules are. They work the same on 30 September as on 1 October.
If you'd like to see how Australian salons, spas, and clinics run deposits, memberships and payments in one place, book a quick walkthrough of Zenoti Payments. We'll show you the settings, not a sales pitch.
Quick answers on the surcharge ban
Are card surcharges banned in Australia?
Yes. Since 1 October 2026, businesses can't add a surcharge to card payments, including debit, prepaid and credit cards on EFTPOS, Visa and Mastercard. The ban is enforced through the card schemes and your payment provider, so continuing to surcharge can lead to fines and a breach of your provider's terms.
Do I still pay merchant fees after 1 October?
Yes. Card acceptance still has a cost. What's changed is that you can no longer pass it on as a separate line at the checkout.
Did Zenoti switch the surcharge off for me?
Yes. For every Australian centre on Zenoti Payments, the surcharge was removed automatically on 1 October across in-store terminals, online booking, payment links and recurring collections. The setting is now greyed out and can't be turned back on. Memberships and packages due on or after 1 October are collected at the base amount, with no changes needed to your plans.
Can I still charge a no-show or cancellation fee?
Yes. A no-show or late cancellation fee is a charge for a service the client booked and didn't use. It isn't a surcharge on how they chose to pay. Set your window and fee, include it in your booking terms, and apply it consistently.
Is a deposit considered a surcharge?
No. A deposit is a part-payment towards the service, taken in advance, and it comes off the final bill. Nothing about the ban affects your ability to take deposits.
Written by
Sunayana Reddy, Director, Product Marketing
With a background in computer science, Sunayana brings deep expertise in positioning and go-to-market strategies across SaaS, fintech, and education. She pairs technical fluency with a sharp instinct for driving product adoption.