Australia’s card surcharge ban takes effect on October 1 but the cost of processing payments isn’t going away. Someone still has to payRight now, if you run a small business and a customer pays with a card, you pay a merchant service fee on that transaction. Your flat white is $5.00; you currently add a 1.5% card surcharge, so a customer tapping their phone pays $5.08. Each person pays for the cost their payment method creates, which is fair enough. Most small business owners have never looked at this number properly.