In The Media

ABC Sydney Breakfast With Craig Reucassel

Play 2h 24m
SEP 5, 2024

Effie Zahos tackled card fees and surcharging this morning on the Today Show.

Effie pointed out that small businesses are paying a lot more than big business for basic debit card payments which are used by the vast majority of Aussie consumers – “the new cash”.

SEP 3, 2024
Brad Kelly

Managing Director – Payment Services

Banning surcharges outright does NOT fix the problem of excessive merchant fees charged by Banks and payment providers.

Instead, it shifts the burden to small businesses equivalent to a tax of $1.7Bn
Have you noticed that Coles, Woolworths and other large retailers don’t surcharge?

AUG 27, 2024

Push to stamp out $4 billion card surcharge ‘rort’ hitting Aussies: 'Cash is fee free'

Aussies are paying billions of dollars a year in surcharges to use their card or other cashless methods to make payments. One politician hopes to make this “rort” a thing of the past and is calling for fee-free digital payments. Labor MP Jerome Laxale said Aussies were paying up to $4 billion in card surcharges simply to “access their own money”. Digital payment methods have skyrocketed in recent years, with the pandemic accelerating the transition away from cash payments, and more businesses than ever are now charging customers a fee to pay with a credit or debit card.
AUG 23, 2024

Banks gouging $4 billion from customers for cashless transaction fees: MP

The nation’s large banks and providers of credit and debit cards have been accused by a Labor MP of paying themselves “kickbacks” that are costing consumers $4 billion a year through surcharges imposed on small business operators.

Jerome Laxale used parliamentary privilege to argue the spread of card and digital payments across the retail sector since the advent of COVID came at an extreme cost to consumers, who are paying hundreds of dollars annually to use their own money.

AUG 22, 2024

Card payment surcharge billions under RBA microscope

The Reserve Bank may be compelled to follow the UK and Europe and ban credit and debit card payment surcharges, as the billions of dollars in fees paid by Australians each year attracts closer political scrutiny.

Labor MP Jerome Laxale, who represents the north-west Sydney electorate of Bennelong, told federal parliament this week that banks and global card…

AUG 22, 2024

Big four banks to face scrutiny over small business transaction fees

Australia’s big four banks will face parliamentary scrutiny next week, with both Labor and Coalition lawmakers set to demand answers about the card payment fees levelled on small businesses.

Members of the Standing Committee on Economics will grill representatives from Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Westpac, and ANZ on Thursday and Friday, with politicians from both sides of the aisle confirming the fees paid by small businesses are front of mind.

AUG 20, 2024

Labor MP kicks off campaign for fee-free digital payment reform

Jerome Laxale, the Labor MP for Bennelong and a member of the House Economics Committee yesterday announced the beginning of a “campaign for fee-free digital payment reform.”

For now Laxale is teasing his colleagues and the industry as to the methods he will employ and who his allies are.