Card surcharges are changing from October. Here’s what Australian fitness businesses need to know.

What’s happening

You may have seen a recent announcement made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) that from 1 October 2026, businesses will no longer be permitted to apply payment surcharges to consumers for payments made using Visa, Mastercard and eftpos cards.  American Express has separately confirmed its support for the RBA’s reforms and is working to remove surcharging on its network from the same date.

Cash, PayPal, Diners Club and buy now, pay later aren’t affected.

Why it matters

Some fitness and wellness businesses currently pass on some or all of their card processing cost to members, either as a visible surcharge, a billing fee, or an admin fee sitting within the sign-up form. From October, that cost can no longer be shown as a separate line item at checkout or on a membership agreement, and it can’t just be relabelled either. If a fee only applies to card payments, it’s treated as a surcharge regardless of what it’s called, so calling it something else doesn’t get around the rule.

The cost of accepting card payments hasn’t gone away. What’s changed is how you choose to deal with it e.g., whether you choose to absorb that cost into your margins or build it into your base pricing, it’s worth deciding which one works for your business well before the deadline arrives.

How it might impact you

Each business is different, so you’ll need to ensure that you understand how these changes impact you. For example, if you’re currently passing a card payment surcharge on to members, this is a pricing decision as well as a compliance one. Members who’ve been paying an extra fee on card payments will notice if that line disappears and prices go up instead, so it may be worth planning how and when you’ll let them know, rather than leaving it to come up when they notice the change themselves.

If you’re not currently passing a surcharge on to members, the direct impact may be smaller, but it’s still worth double checking nothing in your setup is quietly doing that without you realising, particularly if pricing was set up independently across multiple sites. The checks below will catch that either way.

One thing worth knowing, until 30 September, the old rules still apply, meaning any surcharge you charge can’t be more than what it actually costs you to accept that payment type.

Where a surcharge or fee could be hiding

Not every booking or membership platform has a dedicated surcharge or fee section, which can make it easy to assume there’s nothing to check. Even without one, a surcharge or admin fee can sometimes sit in a free text field on a sign-up form, easy to miss unless you’re looking for it specifically.

Some platforms also route payments through a separate processor rather than handling fees within the software itself. If you’re using a payment processor like Stripe, it’s worth checking that dashboard directly, since a surcharge may be configured there rather than within your booking or membership system.

If you operate across multiple locations, this is also a good moment to confirm pricing has stayed consistent site to site. Surcharges in particular have a habit of being set up independently at individual locations without head office knowing, and this deadline is a useful forcing function to bring that back into line.

If you’re not sure where to look, it’s a good idea to talk to your software provider. They’ll be able to tell you where to look for any fee settings in your specific setup.

What this means for Membr customers

Membr doesn’t have a dedicated billing fee section, so there’s no setting within Membr that you’ll need to switch off. The one thing worth checking yourself is whether a surcharge or admin fee has been added into a sign-up form’s free text field, since that’s the one place it could be hiding outside of a proper fee section.

Take a look through your current sign-up forms, Terms and Conditions, and card payment processes before October and remove anything that fits, and reach out to your Account Manager if you’re not sure what to look for.

What to check before October

More changes may be in the works

Card surcharges aren’t the only thing moving in this space.

The Federal Government has also introduced a Bill that could change how subscription and membership contracts work, covering things like cancellation processes and renewal reminders.

If it passes, it could change how you handle member cancellations and renewal notices, for example requiring cancellation to be as easy as sign-up, and clearer notice before a contract renews or a promotional price ends. It’s a separate piece of regulation to the surcharge changes above, and if passed, it wouldn’t commence until 1 July 2027, so there’s nothing urgent here. Just worth keeping an eye on as it moves through Parliament.