CommBank Cuts Merchant Fees as Businesses Lose Surcharge Option
Synopsis
CommBank is cutting eligible merchant fees to 0.99% as businesses lose the ability to surcharge customers from October 1, easing pressure from Australia’s sweeping card payment reforms.
Australian businesses will no longer be able to add a surcharge to customers' transactions for payments via the specified payment networks from October 1, 2026, and CommBank merchant fees will drop to 0.99% from 1.1% per transaction for eligible payments made in-store.
The new CommBank merchant fee rate applies to businesses that have Single Rate Per Transaction rate for merchant fees.
The 0.99% charge will include GST and applies to eligible in-store transactions, and not all merchant arrangements.
Fee cut comes with wider payment reforms
The changes to CommBank merchant fees follow Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) changes which will phase out surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa transactions from October 1.
American Express has also announced it will eliminate surcharging from the same time.
When the RBA made the announcement, they stated that approximately 16% of Australian businesses were imposing card surcharges.
The RBA's Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging, Conclusions Paper also introduces new and reduced interchange fee caps for domestic payments.
The central bank says the changes will save merchants $910 million annually in wholesale card payment costs.
The October changes will impact businesses that already utilise surcharges to cover the cost of payment, and mean the cost of payment can no longer be recovered separately by the business from their customers via one of the impacted networks.
Card spending keeps payment costs in focus
The extent of card usage in Australia can be gauged by the latest RBA payment data, prior to the October changes.
The central bank's Retail Payments June 2026 data shows that the number of Australian-issued cards that made purchases increased to 1.4138 billion in June 2026.
The transactions had an approximate value of $100 billion, while purchases increased by 3.8% from a year ago.
One of the reasons for lower caps on interchange was that the RBA noted that small businesses typically have higher costs to accept cards than larger merchants. The reforms also bring in more transparency on merchant payments.
Changes are specific to Australia. Unfortunately, the October rules don't apply to US businesses, but they do apply to businesses that accept cards from Australian customers.
Before the October price cut, CommBank charges a flat-rate transaction fee of 1.1% for merchants.
Source: SmartCompany
Pooja Malik is a business journalist with over six years of experience covering startups, entrepreneurship, and emerging trends. She has previously worked with leading media platforms such as YourStory Media and BW BusinessWorld, where she reported on business, policy, and market developments. Currently, she serves as Editor at The Inspirepreneur Magazine, where she writes and edits stories across business, lifestyle, and travel, with a focus on clarity, accuracy, and reader relevance.
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