Australia's Card Surcharge Ban: What It Means for Your Halaxy Practice

If you run a healthcare practice in Australia, there is a significant change coming to how you can accept card payments. From 1 October 2026, businesses will no longer be permitted to pass card processing fees on to patients. If that affects how your Halaxy practice is currently set up, now is the time to understand what it means and what to do about it.

How did we get here?

To understand why this is changing, it helps to go back to the early 2000s when surcharging was first introduced. At the time, cash was how most Australians paid for things. Card payments were relatively expensive to process, and the idea behind allowing surcharges was simple: if paying by card cost the business more, the customer should be able to see that cost and choose to pay cash instead. It was designed to keep card usage in check and make sure processing fees did not quietly flow through to everyone's prices.

That logic made sense in 2003. It does not really hold up in 2026.

Cash now accounts for just 13% of in-person transactions across Australia. Most people pay by card, whether that is tapping in person or paying online. In healthcare practices particularly, the shift has been even more pronounced. In our experience working with clinics across Australia, the vast majority of patient payments are now made by card, whether at the desk or via online payments. Cash at a clinic is the exception, not the rule.

The Reserve Bank of Australia looked at all of this and essentially concluded that surcharging is no longer doing what it was designed to do. There is no meaningful cheaper alternative for most people to switch to. The surcharge stopped being a useful signal and started just being an annoying, often confusing fee that showed up at the end of a transaction. So they are scrapping it.

The ban applies to Visa, Mastercard, and EFTPOS. American Express is not covered by this change and sits outside these regulations for now. You can read the full RBA announcement here.

The fees themselves are not disappearing

It is important to be clear about what this change does and does not do. Banks and payment processors will still charge businesses for processing card transactions. That cost has not gone away. What has changed is that businesses can no longer pass that cost on to the patient as a separate charge.

There is a chain of fees behind every card transaction. Your patient's bank, the card network (think Visa or Mastercard), and your payment processor all take a small cut before the money reaches you. Halaxy uses Braintree, which is PayPal's payment processing platform, to process payments in Australia. Halaxy is not taking the payment directly; Braintree is the company actually processing the transaction behind the scenes. Halaxy is essentially your representative in that process.

As part of the same reform package, the RBA is also reducing the interchange fee cap. To understand what that actually means, it helps to know that the total fee on a card transaction is made up of three separate layers: the interchange fee that goes to your patient's bank, a fee that goes to the card network like Visa or Mastercard, and the fee that goes to your payment processor. The RBA only controls the first of those three layers. On a typical credit card transaction, that interchange portion is currently capped at 0.8%. From October 2026, that cap drops to 0.3%. In theory, this should flow through to slightly lower processing costs for businesses. It may well do that, but Braintree is not legally required to pass those savings on and has not made any announcement about reducing their fees. Plan on the basis that fees stay roughly where they are, and treat any reduction as a welcome bonus if it comes.

One thing worth knowing: the more transactions you process through Halaxy, the more cost-effective it becomes. So consolidating your payments through Halaxy could be a smart move if it pushes you up to a cheaper transaction fee level.

A note on cash

Whether cash works for your practice depends entirely on how you operate. For some practices it is completely viable. For others, particularly those running telehealth services or without a physical reception, card payments are far easier. There is no one size fits all answer.

For practices where cash is part of the mix, it is worth being realistic about the hidden costs. Having exact change on hand is not always straightforward. Banking cash is not always a quick errand, and depending on your location it might mean a significant drive to reach a branch. Your bookkeeper will need to reconcile it separately, and unlike a card transaction which creates a clean traceable record, cash requires more manual tracking and leaves more room for error. For many practices, the transaction fee on a card payment is genuinely worth what it saves in time and admin.

The decision should be based on what actually works for how your practice operates, not on avoiding card processing fees that you can no longer pass on anyway.

What this means in Halaxy

It is worth noting that not every practice that uses Halaxy takes payments through Halaxy. Some practices use Halaxy for invoicing and reconciliation but process payments through a separate system. If that is how your practice works, you will need to check your external payment system rather than your Halaxy settings.

If you are taking payments directly within Halaxy, whether processing a card payment at the time of the appointment, online payments or sending a payment link for patients to pay through the Halaxy portal, then this change applies to you.

Within Halaxy's payment setup there are currently two ways the processing fee can be handled. Some practices have their payments set up so that the practice absorbs the fee. If this is you, you are unaffected by this change. Just be aware it is happening so you do not inadvertently change your settings down the track.

Other practices have their settings configured so that the processing fee is passed on to the patient at the time of payment. This is what will need to change before 1 October 2026.

What you need to do if you are currently passing fees on

You will need to stop passing the processing fee on to patients and build that cost into your service fees instead. The right time to do this is at your next annual fee review.

Most private practices should be reviewing and increasing their fees annually, typically somewhere in the range of 5 to 8% to keep pace with inflation, wages, and rising operating costs.

When you next increase your fees, factor in your payment mix and card processing fees. If you were planning on increasing your fees by 8% this year, increase it by 10% instead. That extra 2% will cover your card processing costs if the majority of your patients pay by card. If your payments are closer to a 50/50 split between card and cash, adding 1% on top of your planned increase is likely enough.

When you communicate the increase to patients, keep it simple. Let them know you are completing your annual fee review and adjusting fees to reflect rising operating costs. You do not need to mention card processing fees specifically. A straightforward, confident message about your annual review is all that is needed.

What to do now

Start by checking your Halaxy payment settings to find out whether you currently have processing fees set to pass on to patients. If you do not, you are already in a good position and just need to be aware of the change. If you do, now is the time to plan your next fee review and make the adjustment before October.

If you would like help reviewing your Halaxy payment setup or want to talk through the best approach for your practice, that's what I'm here for. Get in touch and we can work through it together.

Frequently asked questions

Does this change affect bulk billing practices?

If your practice bulk bills and patients have no out of pocket costs, card processing fees are generally not something you are passing on to patients in the first place. This change is most relevant to practices that charge gap fees or private fees and have been passing the processing cost on at the time of payment.

What if I use an external payment system rather than Halaxy payments?

The ban applies regardless of which payment system you use. If you are passing card processing fees on to patients through any system, that will need to stop from 1 October 2026. Check the settings of whatever platform you are using to take card payments.

When should I update my Halaxy settings?

You do not need to make changes right now, but do not leave it until the last minute either. Ideally review your settings and complete your fee increase before October 2026 so everything is in place before the deadline.

Does this apply to telehealth practices?

Yes. The ban applies to all businesses taking card payments in Australia, regardless of whether you see patients in person or remotely. If you are currently passing processing fees on through payment links or online payments, this applies to you.

What about American Express payments?

American Express is not covered by this ban and sits outside the current regulations. If you or your patients use American Express, the existing rules continue to apply for now. The RBA has flagged that American Express and other payment types may be reviewed in future.