Card surcharging and rewards are changing. Your cash flow question isn't.
Australia's card payment rules change on 1 October 2026. Surcharging effectively ends, interchange fees fall on consumer cards, and a number of issuers have already trimmed rewards. For businesses, the bigger question isn't which card earns most — it's whose money is paying the supplier, and when that cash needs to leave.
- From 1 October 2026, card surcharging effectively ends across eftpos, Visa, Mastercard and American Express in Australia.
- The maximum interchange fee on domestic consumer credit card transactions falls from 0.80% to 0.30%.
- Card issuers are already cutting earn rates, transfer ratios and insurances, and raising annual fees, ahead of October.
- Payment platforms depend on the cardholder's own issuer, so rewards value sits outside the platform's control.
- Octet funds the payment itself, so suppliers are paid now and points are earned on repayment.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) card payment reforms will change how businesses think about surcharges, interchange fees and rewards. For Octet, the opportunity goes further, combining working capital funding, payment flexibility and airline points to help businesses manage cash flow while getting more value from everyday payments.
Earlier this year, the RBA announced significant changes to card payments in Australia.
From 1 October 2026, card surcharging will generally end across eftpos, Mastercard and Visa. American Express has separately announced that it will also remove surcharging from the same date. The RBA is reducing the maximum interchange fee on domestic-issued consumer credit card transactions on regulated card networks to 0.30%, while retaining the cap on non-Amex commercial credit cards.
Maximum interchange fees on domestic debit and prepaid transactions are also being reduced, to 8 cents per transaction or 0.16% where percentage-based pricing applies. These changes are expected to reshape card acceptance costs and the economics supporting consumer card rewards.
The RBA has confirmed that business-to-business card payments are not automatically exempt from the new no-surcharge rules.
“Most of the attention right now is on surcharging, because that’s the part customers see at the till. The more consequential change for business owners is what’s happening to interchange. That’s the plumbing that funds card rewards, and it’s being cut on consumer cards while many commercial cards are left where they are. That distinction is the whole story.”
Matthew NolanOctet Head of Partnerships
For the many business owners that use consumer cards in their business, rewards are already thinning, with issuers cutting earn rates, worsening points transfer ratios to airlines, removing insurances, trimming lounge access and raising annual fees ahead of October.
As a merchant, many platforms that let businesses route bills onto a credit card are addressing the same question, because their model depends on the card. This is a point in time for reviewing merchant acceptance arrangements and looking for lower cost alternatives as providers adapt and seek to capitalise on this change.
“Many card-funded business payment platforms are confronting the same issue this month, because the proposition sits on top of somebody else’s rewards program,” explains Matthew. “If an issuer caps the monthly points-earning spend or moves a transfer rate from three to one out to four to one, there is nothing the platform can do about it.”
Commercial credit cards are less directly affected by the interchange changes, because their maximum interchange cap remains at 0.80%. Macquarie’s DEFT, for example, will stop accepting credit and debit card payments through deft.com.au from 1 October.
For a lot of businesses, however, the bigger issue remains working capital.
Many B2B payments platforms basically allow businesses to earn rewards by routing payments through a platform using their own cash or existing card capacity.
Matthew notes the question for any business owner is a simple one: whose money is actually paying the supplier?
“If it’s your own cash, you’ve earned some points but you haven’t solved your cash flow problem,” he says. “Those are two different things, and only one of them helps you in a tight month.”
Octet is a funder, not a payment rail. We can go further by providing eligible businesses with a finance facility to fund payments before their own cash is required.
Through Octet, businesses can use a funding facility to pay suppliers (including those who don't accept cards), the ATO, payroll and other eligible expenses, and gives you time to repay - helping preserve cash and better align outgoing payments with their operating cycle. But in addition, businesses can earn direct airline rewards points on their repayments.
“Our partners aren’t asking us for a better rewards card, they’re asking how to pay a supplier in October when the revenue doesn’t land until November,” says Matthew. “That’s a funding challenge that we were built to answer, while the rewards are bonus you earn on the facility.”
If you have any questions about your existing Octet facility, or want to understand how a funding facility could work for your business, speak with an Octet working capital specialist.
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Disclaimer: The above article content and comments are our views and should not be construed as advice. You should act using your own information and judgment. Although information has been obtained from and is based upon multiple sources the author believes to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy and it may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions and estimates constitute the author’s own judgment as at the date of publication and are subject to change without notice.