Accepting eftpos in Australia

eftpos is Australia’s domestic debit network and typically the cheapest way to accept a debit card in the country. From 1 October 2026 it is also at the centre of the largest change to Australian card economics in years, because the ability to pass card costs to the customer is being removed.

Dual network

How to accept eftpos as a merchant

You do not contract with eftpos. You contract with your acquirer or PSP, who connects you to the network. Most Australian debit cards are dual-network, carrying both eftpos and an international scheme, which means the same tap can be routed down either rail at a different cost. That routing decision is yours to influence and is the single largest lever on Australian debit cost.

Least-cost routing and why it matters

Least-cost routing sends a dual-network debit transaction down the cheaper network rather than the one the card defaults to. In its March 2026 Conclusions Paper the RBA left its existing expectations-based approach to least-cost routing unchanged, which means it remains something you must ask your provider to enable rather than something that happens automatically. Merchants who have never asked are frequently routing debit volume down the more expensive rail by default.

October 2026

What changes on 1 October 2026

On 31 March 2026 the Reserve Bank of Australia published the Conclusions Paper of its Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging. The Payments System Board decided to lift the prohibition on no-surcharge rules for all designated networks, covering debit, prepaid and credit on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa, with effect from 1 October 2026. It also decided to reduce domestic interchange caps and to introduce caps on foreign card interchange, and to require card networks and large acquirers to publish the fees they charge. American Express, JCB and UnionPay have said they support the reforms and are working to remove surcharging from the same date.

Three parts

Least-cost routing is a question with three parts

The section above says least-cost routing remains something you have to ask for. Asking is necessary and it is not sufficient, because the answer has three parts and most merchants get one of them.

Is it enabled at all. Then: on which channels, because in-store contactless, online and in-app can be configured separately, and a merchant who asked once several years ago frequently has it running on the terminal and not in the checkout. Then the part almost nobody asks: on what basis is least cost computed. A provider comparing interchange alone, rather than the total including scheme fees and its own margin, can route a transaction down a rail that is cheaper for it and dearer for you, and still describe the setting as least-cost routing.

Verify it the way you would verify anything else. Ask for one month of dual-network debit transactions showing which network each was routed to and the total cost of each, then check the routing against the cost rather than against the promise. It is one file, it takes an hour to read, and it is the only version of this answer that is not somebody’s marketing.

Why this is a margin event, not a compliance task

Until now an Australian merchant with high acceptance costs had a release valve: surcharge the customer. From 1 October 2026 that valve closes and every basis point of acceptance cost lands directly on margin. The RBA estimates the interchange reductions are worth around $1.2 billion a year to businesses and that roughly 90 per cent will be better off, but interchange is only one component of what you pay. Whether the saving reaches you or is absorbed in your provider’s margin depends entirely on whether your contract is pass-through or blended. Under a blended rate, a reduction in interchange changes your provider’s cost and not your price.

Pass-through

Whose saving is the interchange cut?

The section above says that under a blended rate a reduction in interchange changes your provider’s cost and not your price. On 1 October 2026 that sentence acquires a number.

Take 8 million euros of Australian card revenue on a blended rate of 1.5 per cent, so 120,000 euros a year. Suppose the interchange reductions are worth twenty basis points across that volume. Under pass-through pricing, 16,000 euros a year reaches you. Under a blended rate, 16,000 euros a year reaches your provider and your invoice does not move. Same reform, same volume, and the only difference is a contract structure agreed before anybody knew the reform was coming.

Now set the other half of the same month beside it. A merchant recovering 0.9 per cent on 3 million euros of surcharged volume loses 27,000 euros of recovery when surcharging ends. So on pass-through the net position is roughly 11,000 euros worse; on a blended rate it is 27,000 euros worse. One clause separates those two outcomes, and there are weeks left in which to change it. The reform also requires card networks and large acquirers to publish the fees they charge, which is what turns this from arguable into negotiable: for the first time you can check the number your provider quotes against a published one.

Which payment provider supports eftpos for merchants in Australia?

Tyro, Zeller and Pin Payments in Australia, alongside Adyen, all name eftpos among the networks they accept, as does every provider serving Australia, so the question to ask instead is whether least-cost routing is switched on, whether your pricing is blended or pass-through, and what your provider intends to do when the interchange caps drop. The new transparency requirements will make those answers easier to verify than they have ever been.

Reviewing your Australian acceptance costs before October

What you pay is set in your acquiring contract, not by the RBA. With surcharging ending and interchange falling in the same month, a contract written before either change is unlikely to pass the benefit through by itself. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, or move straight to cutting your PSP costs, where interchange, scheme fees and markup are separated before anything is negotiated.

Relevant markets: Australia