What is surcharging?

To ensure fairness, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has a surcharging standard in place to help businesses decide on how much they can surcharge.

A surcharge is an extra fee or charge that’s added on to the cost of goods or services above the quoted price. You can surcharge on transactions that are tapped, swiped or inserted.

A surcharge can be added to the cost of an item as a percentage of the price or a dollar figure. A surcharge is intended to cover the costs associated with running a merchant facility and can be added to a contactless or card-inserted transaction. 

Under the surcharging standard, customers using Visa, Mastercard, EFTPOS and American Express cards can’t be charged an amount higher than the cost of accepting that particular card scheme.

You don’t have to surcharge. However, if you do choose to surcharge, you need to ensure that your surcharging amounts are correct.

How much to surcharge

If you choose to surcharge, you’re required to use the most recent 12 months transaction percentages on your monthly merchant statement.  These will help you understand your Cost of Acceptance. If you have been with NAB for less than 12 months, you need to use the data you have and check again after 6 months and 12 months to ensure your surcharging amounts are correct.

You need to make sure the surcharge amount does not exceed your Cost of Acceptance. The RBA surcharging standard, opens in new window states that merchants can only pass on what it costs them to accept each type of card transaction. Surcharging more than your Cost of Acceptance may constitute ‘excessive surcharging’ and can be investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

If you’re already surcharging, we recommend you review and amend these surcharges based on the Cost of Acceptance table provided in your statement.

Displaying surcharge amounts to customers

If you have made the decision to surcharge you must disclose that to your customers. You must tell them what surcharges may apply before their transaction is completed, giving the customer the option not to proceed. 

It’s important your customers understand that the price they’ll be charged will be slightly different from the ticketed price. You can use the editable card surcharge table (PDF, 1MB), opens in new window  to display the surcharge for each transaction type.

Consequences if you surcharge excessively

The ACCC monitors to ensure merchants don’t surcharge in excess of their Cost of Acceptance and has been given new powers to enforce the surcharging standard. They will investigate complaints relating to excessive payment surcharges, and merchants will be required to provide information and documents about their costs of accepting card payments.

If the ACCC believes that a business has charged an excessive surcharge, they can issue an infringement notice. This means you may have to pay a penalty. They can also take court action against the merchant, seeking pecuniary penalties.

How to set up surcharging on your terminal

Changing your surcharging amount

You can change your surcharging amount each month if you want to. However, there's no need to do so, even if your business is seasonal. 

If you choose to surcharge, you’re required to use the most recent 12 months percentages, or the 12-month cost of acceptance from your June statement, which covers the financial year July to June. You also need to ensure that the surcharge for each card scheme doesn't exceed your Cost of Acceptance for that card scheme as advised on your statement, in addition to any other costs allowed under the RBA surcharging standard.

If you’re already surcharging, we recommend you review and amend the amounts based on the Cost of Acceptance table provided in your statement.

What is Cost of Acceptance?

Cost of Acceptance is the cost to you as a merchant business for accepting a particular card type. RBA advises that surcharging costs can include:

  • Fees and charges from schemes such as Visa, Mastercard, EFTPOS, American Express, JCB and more.
  • Fees including terminal rental, stationery and minimum monthly merchant service fees.
  • Fees including monthly access fees, any fees or charges paid to payment gateway providers and fees for fraud prevention.
  • Specific fees charged for processing card transactions by schemes, such as international service assessments, cross-border fees, switching fees and fraud-related chargeback fees (this excludes the chargeback amount).

How Cost of Acceptance appears on your statement

A cost of acceptance table can be found on your monthly merchant statement and contains:

  1. A summary of the value of the transactions made by your customers.
  2. The fees we’re charging you for those transactions.
  3. The Cost of Acceptance, shown as a percentage.

Below is an example of the Cost of Acceptance table. NAB provides you with information for the current statement month, as well as the most recent 12-month period.

Statement month

Scheme and card type (1)
Total value of transactions for the statement month
(2)
Total value of fees for the statement month
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the statement month
Visa Credit
(1)
Total value of transactions for the statement month
$1,000
(2)
Total value of fees for the statement month
$9.60
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the statement month
0.96%
Visa Debit and Prepaid
(1)
Total value of transactions for the statement month
$500
(2)
Total value of fees for the statement month
$2.10
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the statement month
0.42%
Mastercard Credit
(1)
Total value of transactions for the statement month
$400
(2)
Total value of fees for the statement month
$3.80
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the statement month
0.90%
Mastercard Debit and Prepaid
(1)
Total value of transactions for the statement month
$100
(2)
Total value of fees for the statement month
$0.48
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the statement month
0.48%
EFTPOS and EFTPOS Prepaid
(1)
Total value of transactions for the statement month
$200
(2)
Total value of fees for the statement month
$0.50
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the statement month
0.25%
UnionPay International
(1)
Total value of transactions for the statement month
$300
(2)
Total value of fees for the statement month
$3.96
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the statement month
1.32%

Most recent 12 months

Scheme and card type (1)
Total value of transactions for the most recent 12 months
(2)
Total value of fees for the most recent 12 months
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the most recent 12 months
Visa Credit
(1)
Total value of transactions for the most recent 12 months
$10,000
(2)
Total value of fees for the most recent 12 months
$92
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the most recent 12 months
0.92%
Visa Debit and Prepaid
(1)
Total value of transactions for the most recent 12 months
$6,000
(2)
Total value of fees for the most recent 12 months
$28.80
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the most recent 12 months
0.48%
Mastercard Credit
(1)
Total value of transactions for the most recent 12 months
$3,600
(2)
Total value of fees for the most recent 12 months
$3.45
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the most recent 12 months
0.96%
Mastercard Debit and Prepaid
(1)
Total value of transactions for the most recent 12 months
$1,000
(2)
Total value of fees for the most recent 12 months
$5.20
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the most recent 12 months
0.52%
EFTPOS and EFTPOS Prepaid
(1)
Total value of transactions for the most recent 12 months
$2,000
(2)
Total value of fees for the most recent 12 months
$4.60
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the most recent 12 months
0.23%
UnionPay International
(1)
Total value of transactions for the most recent 12 months
$6,000
(2)
Total value of fees for the most recent 12 months
$79.20
(3)
Cost of Acceptance for the most recent 12 months
1.32%

Remember you can also add the other costs of acceptance listed under What is Cost of Acceptance above.

Why American Express isn’t included in the Cost of Acceptance table

American Express issues their own statements that include the Cost of Acceptance calculation separately. Find out how to calculate your overall Cost of Acceptance if you receive more than one merchant statement.

Online payment systems with different scheme and card type categories

If your online payment system has different scheme and card type categories, you need to contact your service provider to discuss this with them. If you do have different card scheme and type categories, you need to charge the lower of the fees for each card scheme from the Cost of Acceptance table. For example, if you apply the same surcharge amount for all Visa transactions, you need to use the lower of the Visa Credit and Visa Debit Cost of Acceptance

What to do if your Cost of Acceptance reports as N/A

This occurs when there is either:

  • not enough information to calculate a Cost of Acceptance
  • not enough data to provide a realistic calculation, which means the calculation would be misleading from a surcharging perspective.

How Cost of Acceptance is calculated

The Cost of Acceptance is calculated by dividing the value of the fees by the sales from the NAB Merchant Statement, to arrive at a percentage for each of the schemes. There are also additional fees reported on your statement such as terminal fees and imprinter fees, which aren't specific to any particular scheme. These are apportioned based on the value of sales processed for each scheme and card type.

We're unable to provide a formula to assist with the calculation, as it needs to reference each scheme and card type transaction.

Cost of Acceptance on multiple statements

If you receive more than one statement, for example one from a payment gateway and one from NAB, each statement has a separate Cost of Acceptance table.  

To calculate your total Cost of Acceptance, you need to add each statement’s Cost of Acceptance per scheme and card type. This gives you an overall Cost of Acceptance per scheme and card type.

Calculating cost of acceptance if you receive multiple merchant statements

Use this table if you receive more than one merchant statement:

Statement type How to determine your cost of acceptance (COA)
NAB Merchant Statement and NAB Transact Statement
How to determine your cost of acceptance (COA)

If the value of the sales for each scheme and card type are the same on both statements, you need to add the respective COA percentages to calculate your overall COA. 

 HOWEVER

If the value of sales for a specific scheme and card type are different on the statements:

Step 1:  Add the value of the fees from both statements.

Step 2: Divide the value of the fees calculated from step 1 by the sales from the NAB Merchant Statement. This provides you with the cost of acceptance.

This needs to be repeated for each scheme and card type where the sales figures are different.

NAB Merchant Statement and NAB Multi Currency Statement
How to determine your cost of acceptance (COA)

For each separate scheme and card type reported:

Step 1:  Add the value of the fees from both statements.

Step 2:  Add the value of the sales from both statements.

Step 3: Divide the value of the fees from step 1 by the value of the sales calculated from step 2. This provides you with the cost of acceptance.

This needs to be repeated for each scheme and card type.

NAB Merchant Statement, NAB Multi Currency Statement and NAB Transact Statement
How to determine your cost of acceptance (COA)

For each separate scheme and card type reported:

Step 1:  Add the value of the fees from all three statements.

Step 2:  Add the value of the sales from both the NAB Merchant Statement and NAB Multi Currency statements only.

Step 3: Divide the value of the fees from step 1 by the value of the sales from step 2. This provides you with the cost of acceptance.

This needs to be repeated for each scheme and card type.

American Express Statement and NAB Transact Statement
How to determine your cost of acceptance (COA)

Step 1:  Add the value of the fees from both statements.

Step 2: Divide the value of the fees calculated in step 1 by the value of the sales from the NAB Merchant Statement. This provides you with the cost of acceptance.

Please Note: Merchant statements issued by NAB via NAB Transact have American Express COA information so the other merchant statements do not need to be considered in relation to American Express.

Where to find more information

Call us on 1300 369 852

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