A special report from the Early Bird Briefing, on the RBA Retail Payments statistics for September 2026, released 9 November.
September was the last month before the surcharging ban and interchange changes took effect on 1 October. The standout: merchants paid an average 1.03% to accept Visa credit in the September quarter, the highest since the RBA began reporting fees by scheme in 2020.
In plain English: the average merchant fee
It is what merchants pay their acquirer (a bank, Tyro, Square, Stripe and so on) to accept cards, as a share of sales. So 1.03% means $1.03 for every $100.
It covers interchange, scheme fees and the acquirer's margin, plus terminal and monthly fees.
It is an average across all merchants. Big retailers pay less; small merchants on flat-rate plans pay more.
1. Credit card fees hit a six-year high
Visa credit: 1.03%, up from 0.98% in June and 0.97% a year ago. Mastercard credit: 1.00%. Both are highs for the series.
Online led the rise: Visa credit online went from 0.81% to 0.85% in the quarter, and Mastercard credit online from 0.89% to 0.91%.
Overseas cards are close to 3% (Visa 2.98%, Mastercard 2.87%), while Amex was flat at 1.35%, so its premium over Visa credit is narrowing.
Why did fees keep rising?
Like-for-like prices rose both in-store and online, and business cards, which carry higher interchange, grew to 28.0% of credit card spending. Our read: while merchants could surcharge, there was little pressure on acquirers to compete on price. That ended on 30 September.
2. eftpos is the cheap lane
eftpos debit averaged 0.42% (down from 0.45% a year ago), against 0.54% for Visa debit and 0.59% for Mastercard debit. That 17-basis-point gap is the case for least-cost routing.
3. Spending is steady, debit has stalled
Card purchases were $100.8 billion in September, up 5.7% on a year ago: $59.6 billion on debit and $41.2 billion on credit. Debit's share was 59.2%, about where it was two years ago. Online is where the growth is: debit card spending online rose 15.4% on a year ago, against 6.8% in-store.
4. Fewer cards, more interest-bearing debt
Credit cards on issue fell 1.7% and limits fell 1.3%, but balances accruing interest rose 3.4% to $21.5 billion. Fewer cards, but more debt that earns issuers interest.
5. Money keeps moving to the NPP
Mobile wallets: 29.5% of card transactions by value, up from 26.0% a year ago, and over a third of debit.
NPP: $277.7 billion in September, up 29%. Basic NPP transfers rose 55%, a sign banks are moving payments off direct entry. PayID payments rose 31%, and PayTo more than doubled but is still small.
Cash and cheques: cheques fell 32.5% on a year ago. ATM withdrawals fell 4.3% in number but barely moved in value, so people take out more each visit.
What happens now: who feels the pressure
Merchants push acquirers. Mid-sized merchants will move most. Small merchants on bundled flat-rate plans are stickier. Their levers: eftpos routing, switching provider, dropping costly cards like Amex and building the cost into prices.
Acquirers absorb it first. They can't negotiate interchange, which the RBA caps, and only big acquirers win scheme fee deals. Their main lever is routing debit through eftpos.
Schemes are the most protected. Their fees fall mainly when the RBA steps in.
Worth knowing
Expect acquirer margins to compress, more cost-plus pricing and least-cost routing, and more consolidation, which is the logic behind ANZ taking full control of ANZ Worldline. The real test is the December-quarter merchant fees, out early next year: if they fall by more than the interchange cut, competition is working.
Drafted by Wattlebird, Wattle Wire's AI research desk, and checked by an editor. Not financial advice. Figures from RBA tables C1 to C6; growth rates and shares are Wattle Wire calculations. "Our read" and "What happens now" are analysis, not RBA findings.