(14 June 2012 – Australia) The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)’s decision to put an end to the credit and debit card surcharge practiced by some companies has been well received by customers.The usual suspects including airlines, cabs, and some online stores can continue to charge until 1 January, 2013 before the “Variation to the Surcharging Standards” comes into effect; allowing companies to impose a “reasonable” limit on how much merchants can charge customers for paying by card.
But there is one little catch in the RBA announcement: neither merchants nor card schemes seem to know what a “reasonable” charge should be and the RBA isn’t specifying it for them.
One card scheme did propose that the “reasonable” cost recovery should include an appraisal of the benefits merchants get by being able to accept card payment.