Payments & Deposits

Can my salon or clinic still add a card surcharge in Australia?

Not in Australia. From 1 October 2026 a surcharge for paying by eftpos, Mastercard, Visa or American Express is no longer allowed. A booking fee, a deposit, a cancellation fee or a weekend loading that applies however the client pays is still fine, and Bella supports each one.

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What changed on 1 October 2026

The Reserve Bank of Australia ended surcharging on the three card networks it regulates: eftpos (debit and prepaid), Mastercard and Visa (credit, debit and prepaid). American Express and UnionPay stopped surcharging on the same day on their own account, and PayPal followed on 5 October 2026.

The rule is enforced by the card networks through your payment provider, so payment providers switched the option off on their terminals and online checkouts. Bella removed its own Pass processing fees setting on 1 October 2026.
Interchange caps dropped on the same day. Stripe passed the saving on: its Australian online rate is now 1.65% + A$0.30 per domestic card payment, down from 1.70% + A$0.30.
The change covers fees added because a client pays by card, and nothing else. In the RBA's own words, it does not apply to weekend surcharges, public holiday surcharges, booking fees or service fees.

What you can still charge

A booking or appointment fee that every client pays, whether they pay by card, cash, gift card or client credit.
A deposit when the client books, and a late-cancellation or no-show fee when they do not turn up.
A weekend or public holiday loading, disclosed before the client books.
A discount for paying by cash or PayID, as long as it is clearly displayed before the client buys.
Higher prices. Some businesses are folding the card cost into the service price.

A card fee under another name is still a card fee. Stripe's guidance says a surcharge cannot be renamed to get around the rules, and the Small Business Ombudsman's FAQ says businesses must not mislead clients about the reason for a price rise. Whatever you charge has to be the same for a client paying cash.

What Bella does

Bella never adds a processing fee to a client's payment. The client pays the price you set, and the Stripe fee and Bella's platform fee come out of the amount you receive. That is the same for deposits, card on file charges, cancellation fees, gift cards, packages, tips and product orders. There is nothing to switch off: the old Pass processing fees setting was removed on 1 October 2026, and receipts for payments taken while it was on still show the fee line they carried.

To recover the cost, use the Appointment fee under Settings > Booking policies. It adds one fixed fee, with a name you choose, to every new appointment that includes a service. It is charged once per appointment, it applies to online bookings and to appointments your team creates, and it is the same whatever the payment method. Bella refuses a name that presents it as a card or processing fee, so it stays on the right side of the rule by design.

Clients see the fee inside the first price on a service card, then as its own line on the booking summary, the receipt and the confirmation email.
Collect at booking takes the fee with the deposit; Non-refundable keeps it on a default refund. Both switches start off.
Sales summary reports the number and value of appointment fees collected.
Deposits and cancellation fees work as before. The details are in the booking policies guide at /guides/booking-policy-strategy.

What a card payment costs you through Bella

Payment	Who processes it	Cost to you
Online deposit, card on file charge, gift card or package bought online	Stripe, connected to Bella	Stripe 1.65% + A$0.30, plus Bella 1%. All in: 2.65% + A$0.30
Card at the counter on your own EFTPOS machine	Your terminal provider	Your terminal provider's rate. Bella records the payment as Card (Manual) against the machine you name
Cash, gift card, client credit	Nobody	Nothing

Two examples at the online rate: a A$100 deposit costs A$2.95, so A$97.05 reaches your account; a A$60 service paid in full online costs A$1.89.

Three ways to handle the cost

1Absorb it. Keep your prices and treat card acceptance as a running cost.
2Reprice. Add 2.65% plus 30 cents to a service price and round up to the nearest dollar: a A$60 service becomes A$62. Cash clients pay the same, so it is a price change and allowed.
3Add an appointment fee. A A$2 fee named for what it pays for, on every appointment however the client pays, recovers the online card cost on a typical A$60 to A$80 service.

The worked examples and a repricing table are in /guides/after-the-surcharge-ban-repricing-and-fees.

What to update

Your website, your booking page text and your price list, if any of them mention a card surcharge.
Signage at the counter and any card reader prompt that still says a fee applies.
Confirmation and reminder messages, if you had written the surcharge into them.
Your prices or an appointment fee in Bella, if you decide to recover the cost that way.

This page explains the change and what Bella does with it. It is not legal advice. The RBA's FAQ, the Small Business Ombudsman and the ACCC publish the rules, and an accountant or adviser can check your pricing.