Background: The RBA has spent the past few years digging into how Australians pay for things, including what it costs businesses to accept card payments and how those costs get passed on to customers. Back in March, it announced a few changes designed to reshape how those fees work. Those changes kicked in yesterday, October 1.  

What happened: The biggest one is pretty simple: card surcharges are now banned. So if a coffee is advertised at $6, you shouldn't suddenly see $6.17 on the bill because you tapped your card. At the same time, the fee businesses pay to accept credit card payments has been cut from 0.8% to 0.3%.

What else: Despite the RBA claiming this surcharge ban would save customers $1.6 billion - consumers and small businesses aren't buying it. Businesses still have card costs to pay that will either be:

• Absorbed by the business
• Built into the advertised price
• Spread across all customers regardless of how they pay.

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What's the key learning?

💡 In business, a cost never really disappears... it just finds a new home. Economists call it "cost pass-through." In normal person terms, someone always gets stuck with the bill.  

💡 The businesses most affected are the 16% that previously charged card surcharges. That's typically your local cafe, pub or book store. Some may absorb the cost, but many will likely nudge prices up instead, or find another way to recover the fee.

💡 A fee can disappear without the cost disappearing. QR restairant ordering app Me&U has already introduced a new "platform fee just weeks after the surcharge changes. Similar charge, different name. So your $6 coffee could soon become $6 (business absorbed the cost) or $6.50 (a clean number to pass onto the customer).