You may have seen a recent announcement made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) that from 1 October 2026, businesses will no longer be permitted to apply payment surcharges to consumers for payments made using Visa, Mastercard and eftpos cards. American Express has separately confirmed its support for the RBA's reforms and is working to remove surcharging on its network from the same date.
Cash, PayPal, Diners Club and buy now, pay later aren't affected.
Some fitness and wellness businesses currently pass on some or all of their card processing cost to members, either as a visible surcharge, a billing fee, or an admin fee sitting within the sign-up form. From October, that cost can no longer be shown as a separate line item at checkout or on a membership agreement, and it can't just be relabelled either. If a fee only applies to card payments, it's treated as a surcharge regardless of what it's called, so calling it something else doesn't get around the rule.
The cost of accepting card payments hasn't gone away. What's changed is how you choose to deal with it e.g., whether you choose to absorb that cost into your margins or build it into your base pricing, it’s worth deciding which one works for your business well before the deadline arrives.
Each business is different, so you’ll need to ensure that you understand how these changes impact you. For example, if you're currently passing a card payment surcharge on to members, this is a pricing decision as well as a compliance one. Members who've been paying an extra fee on card payments will notice if that line disappears and prices go up instead, so it may be worth planning how and when you'll let them know, rather than leaving it to come up when they notice the change themselves.
If you're not currently passing a surcharge on to members, the direct impact may be smaller, but it's still worth double checking nothing in your setup is quietly doing that without you realising, particularly if pricing was set up independently across multiple sites. The checks below will catch that either way.
One thing worth knowing, until 30 September, the old rules still apply, meaning any surcharge you charge can't be more than what it actually costs you to accept that payment type.
Not every booking or membership platform has a dedicated surcharge or fee section, which can make it easy to assume there's nothing to check. Even without one, a surcharge or admin fee can end up sitting in a free text field on a sign-up form, easy to miss unless you're looking for it specifically.
Some platforms also route payments through a separate processor rather than handling fees within the software itself. If you're using a payment processor like Stripe, it's worth checking that dashboard directly, since a surcharge may be configured there rather than within your booking or membership system.
If you operate across multiple locations, this is also a good moment to confirm pricing has stayed consistent site to site. Surcharges in particular have a habit of being set up independently at individual locations without head office knowing, and this deadline is a useful forcing function to bring that back into line.
If you're not sure where to look, it's a good idea to talk to your software provider. They'll be able to tell you where to look for any fee settings in your specific setup.
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If you currently have this sliding scale turned on, here's the key date to know: on 1 October, Momence will automatically move it to 0% for you if you haven't already changed it yourself. From that date, the option will also be removed from the platform entirely. This means the change will happen either way. The only question is whether you control the timing and manage the impact on your members, or whether it happens automatically on the day.
You will need to assess the impact of these changes on your business and, more specifically, how you choose to price goods and services provided to your members. You may, for example, choose to:
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If you choose option two, timing matters: change your pricing and turn the sliding scale to 0% at the same time, not one before the other. If you increase your price first and leave the sliding scale as is, your members will see two separate increases (your price change, then the existing fee) until Momence's automatic reset on 1 October, at which point the price will effectively drop again. Making both changes together avoids that. Please note that this change applies to credit and debit card payments only and does not affect payments made via BECS Direct Debit (i.e. where clients pay using a BSB and account number). If you are currently passing on fees for BECS Direct Debit transactions, you may continue to do so as normal.
It is important to note that businesses will continue to determine the price charged for their products and services and remain responsible for ensuring their pricing arrangements comply with any applicable contractual, regulatory and legal obligations |
Card surcharges aren't the only thing moving in this space.
The Federal Government has also introduced a Bill that could change how subscription and membership contracts work, covering things like cancellation processes and renewal reminders.
If it passes, it could change how you handle member cancellations and renewal notices, for example requiring cancellation to be as easy as sign-up, and clearer notice before a contract renews or a promotional price ends. It's a separate piece of regulation to the surcharge changes above, and if passed, it wouldn't commence until 1 July 2027, so there's nothing urgent here. Just worth keeping an eye on as it moves through Parliament.