Australia's Rising Cost of Payments August 2024

3.0%

2.5%

2.0%

1.5%

1.0%

0.5%

0.0%

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

American Express Credit

Diners Club Credit Mastercard Debit

eftpos Debit Visa Credit

Mastercard and Visa All

Mastercard Credit

Visa Debit

Rising Average Fees Across Most Networks Since 2020: Following the enforcement of the 2003 interchange caps and surcharging rights, Visa and Mastercard cost of acceptance for Australian merchants fell from 1.45% to 1.08% in just one year. While Amex was exempt from the interchange caps, Amex fees have steadily fallen from 2.51% in Q1 2003 to 1.32% in Q4 2023. By Q2 2020, when the RBA began to report on Visa and Mastercard debit and credit fees separately, the average merchant fee for those networks was 0.62%, less than half the Q1 2003 value. Over the period Q3 2020 to Q4 2023, Visa and Mastercard credit rates had the highest increase, rising by 0.09% and 0.12% respectively. In that same period, eftpos merchant fees also increased by 0.09%, with average Eftpos merchant fees sitting at 0.35% by Q4 2023.

2024 Fee Increases Expected:

$40 million annually

Across major card networks, there have been a number of network and interchange fee changes in Australia in just the last year. CMSPI estimates that just three fees introduced in 2024 are costing the Australian merchants over:

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