Reminder: Electronic transaction ban starts tomorrow

Further to our earlier publication this month, the ban on businesses charging excessive surcharges on electronic transactions starts tomorrow.

The ban relates to businesses adding a surcharge on payments made through EFTPOS, VISA, MasterCard, Amex, etc.  If your business does this, then the surcharge can only be the amount charged by the financial provider to you.  You cannot mark up or include your own internal costs.

If you accept a variety of payment options, and want to impose a flat surcharge for all of them, then you must adopt the lowest rate charged to you.  You cannot average the costs of all financial providers or just pick the most common.

If you have any questions about the changes or are uncertain if your terms of sale allow you to charge the surcharge in the first place, please contact us.