RBA Bans Card Surcharges and Slashes Interchange Fees: What It Means for Points Collectors
The surcharge ban sounds like great news at the checkout, but a massive cut to credit card interchange fees could hit your points earn hard. And Amex is already making moves of its own.
Surcharges are gone on all eftpos, Mastercard and Visa cards from 1 October 2026.
Consumer credit card interchange fees slashed from a cap of 0.8% down to 0.3%, squeezing banks’ ability to fund rewards.
Commercial credit cards not affected. The cap stays at 0.8%.
American Express is not covered by these rules yet, but is already trimming Platinum benefits and raising FX fees independently.
Elite members get step-by-step guides on earning and redeeming Qantas, Velocity and Amex points, plus real-time alerts when benefits change so you are never caught off guard.
What has the RBA decided?
On 31 March 2026, the RBA released its Conclusions Paper after an 18-month review. Three headline decisions: end card surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa from 1 October 2026, reduce interchange fees (saving merchants an estimated $910 million per year), and increase fee transparency.
The consumer credit card interchange cut is the one that matters most for points collectors. The cap is dropping from 0.8% to 0.3%, a reduction of more than 60%. The RBA was explicit: interchange fees should not be used to fund reward programs, and it would be “more efficient” for issuers to bear those costs themselves. That is a very clear signal.
| Card Type | Current Cap | New Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Credit (domestic) | 0.8% | 0.3% |
| Debit (domestic) | 10c or 0.2% | 8c or 0.16% |
| Commercial Credit (domestic) | 0.8% | 0.8% (unchanged) |
| Foreign-issued cards New | Unregulated | 1.0% (new cap) |
What does this mean for points earning?
Multiple issuers told the RBA during consultation that they would respond to lower interchange revenue by reducing cardholder benefits, cutting rewards earn rates, or increasing annual fees.
We saw this exact playbook after the 2016/17 interchange cuts. Banks reduced earn rates, introduced points caps, and cut transfer ratios to airline partners. Given the scale of this cut, expect a similar or larger round of changes.
The areas most likely to be affected: lower points earn rates per dollar on consumer credit cards, reduced sign-up bonuses, weaker transfer ratios from bank programs to Qantas, Velocity and KrisFlyer, and potentially higher annual fees on premium cards.
If you were paying 1% to 2% surcharges on credit card transactions for flights, accommodation and insurance, that ‘saving’ goes straight back into your pocket from October. Because now, that cost will be spread across the price of a product or service for everyone, not just those people using credit cards. Arguably, it’s costing you less.
On $2,000 per month in card spend at 1.5% surcharge, that is around $360 per year. At $50,000 annual spend, you are looking at $750.
Amex is already moving
American Express is not covered by the RBA’s interchange cap or surcharge ban (yet). The RBA will review Amex, BNPL and mobile wallets separately starting mid-2026. In theory, Amex’s ability to fund generous Membership Rewards earn rates and transfer bonuses to partners like Qantas, Velocity and KrisFlyer is not directly affected.
But Amex clearly is not waiting around. On the same day as the RBA announcement, American Express Australia confirmed a series of changes to its Platinum cards.
Lounge access: Reduced guest allowances for Centurion and Plaza Premium lounges. Extra Priority Pass memberships removed from Platinum cards.
Foreign exchange fees: Currency conversion fees increasing to 3.5% on many cards from 4 May 2026.
Dining credits: Platinum card annual dining benefits (up to $400) ending or being restructured in 2026.
The timing is hard to ignore. Merchants will still be able to surcharge American Express transactions after October 2026 (since Amex is not covered by the ban), which could discourage some businesses from continuing to accept it. That pressure, combined with these benefit reductions, suggests Amex is proactively repositioning.
The real concern: a double hit
What worries us most is the compounding effect. Throughout 2025, we already saw pre-emptive devaluations across several programs. Both Qantas and Amex adjusted earn rates and transfer ratios ahead of the RBA’s final decision, with some cardholders seeing their points earn trimmed before any regulation had even taken effect.
Now that the RBA has confirmed the interchange cut, there is a real risk that we cop a second round of devaluations on top of the ones already absorbed. If banks use the October 2026 start date as another trigger to reduce earn rates, cap bonuses or weaken transfer ratios further, points collectors end up wearing the cost twice: once from the 2025 pre-emptive cuts, and again from the post-regulation adjustments later this year.
We will be watching this closely and calling it out if it happens.
The interchange cap on commercial credit cards stays at 0.8%. The RBA kept this rate to prevent Amex, already the dominant player in commercial cards, from gaining too large a competitive advantage. If you earn points primarily through a business card, your rewards are less likely to be affected.
Key dates
1 October 2026: Surcharging ends on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa. New domestic interchange caps take effect (0.3% consumer credit, 8c debit).
1 April 2027: New 1.0% cap on foreign-issued card interchange and additional transparency measures.
Mid-2026 onwards: RBA begins a separate review covering American Express, BNPL and mobile wallets.
The bottom line
The surcharge ban is welcome. Paying 1.5% on a credit card transaction just to earn 1 point per dollar was always painful maths, and that friction is gone for Visa and Mastercard from October.
But the interchange cut from 0.8% to 0.3% is a significant blow to rewards economics, and we are concerned about a second wave of devaluations on top of what we saw through 2025.
The smart moves right now: lock in strong sign-up bonuses before banks pull them back, consider whether an American Express card makes sense as your primary earner while Amex remains outside the interchange cap, and keep a close eye on announcements as October approaches. We will be tracking every card change as it happens.