The Australian card surcharge ban comes into effect on 1 October, and it’s closer than it feels. If you’ve been meaning to get across what it means for your pricing, now’s the time.
The good news: folding your card costs into your prices isn’t a compromise. For most salons, it’s the smarter move than surcharging ever was.
A quick recap
From 1 October 2026, businesses across Australia can no longer add a surcharge for card payments at checkout. It applies to EFTPOS, Mastercard and Visa, in person and online. The price your client sees is the price they pay.
If you don’t currently surcharge, nothing changes for you. If you do, the cost of accepting cards doesn’t disappear. It just needs a new home: your prices.
Reframe it, don’t relitigate it
If you’ve been surcharging, it can feel like you’re losing something on 1 October. Try flipping that.
Folding your payment costs into your prices means:
- One number for your client to look at. No surprise line at checkout.
- No more explaining surcharge rules to confused clients or new team members.
- No more compliance risk around how surcharges are calculated and disclosed.
You’re not absorbing a loss. You’re simplifying your pricing, the same way you already account for product costs, rent and wages.
Know your real number
Vague reassurance doesn’t help you set a price. A concrete number does.
Say your salon turns over $300,000 a year, and every client pays by card at a typical 1.7% acceptance rate. That’s roughly $5,100 a year currently spent on card acceptance costs. That’s the number to work into your pricing, not a guess and not a round-up “just in case.”
Your own number will differ based on your turnover and card mix. We’ve built a pricing calculator so you can plug in your own figures and see exactly what to add.
This isn’t just Kitomba Pay
If you’re not on Kitomba Pay, this still applies to you. The ban covers card acceptance across every provider in Australia, not just ours. If your current payment provider hasn’t reached out with a clear plan for 1 October, that’s worth asking them about directly.
Either way, repricing with confidence comes down to the same three questions for any salon:
- What’s your current card acceptance rate?
- What share of your revenue comes through card?
- What does that add up to across a year?
More than a payment problem
Getting your pricing right is one piece of a bigger picture. Kitomba Pay customers already have access to reporting that shows exactly what’s coming through card versus cash, so you’re not estimating your card mix; you can see it. Pair that with our targets and analytics tools, and repricing becomes one input into a broader look at your margins, not a one-off scramble in September.
Get ahead of it
You’ve got until 1 October, but the smart move is to start now:
- Work out your real number using your own turnover and card mix.
- Decide whether that number gets folded evenly across your price list or targeted at specific services.
- Update your price list, menus and website before the deadline, not the week of it.
- Brief your team early so they can answer client questions with confidence, not a shrug.
We’ll keep sending practical, specific guidance between now and October, starting with the pricing calculator. No more “don’t worry about it for now.” Just what you need, when you need it.
See how Kitomba Pay’s reporting can show your card vs cash split.