What's actually inside a card fee

30 September 2026 · 3 minute read

When a customer taps, the fee you pay splits three ways. Knowing the split is what makes provider pricing make sense.

1. Interchange

Goes to the customer's bank. The Reserve Bank caps it in Australia, and the caps came down under the 2026 reforms — one reason some providers cut prices this year.

2. Scheme fees

Go to the card network — Visa, Mastercard, eftpos — for running the rails.

3. The provider's margin

Everything left over goes to your payment provider. This is the part that varies most, the part that pricing plans are built around, and the part you can actually shop on.

Why small businesses often pay more: the Reserve Bank's own data shows smaller merchants pay meaningfully higher rates on average than big ones — larger businesses negotiate, smaller ones take the listed plan. The reforms push the other way: capped wholesale costs, published fees and readable statements shrink the places a high margin can hide.

What to do with this

Nothing complicated. The three-way split is invisible on a flat plan — which is fine — but your effective rate captures the lot. Know that number, and you know whether your provider's slice is fair.

Check your rate free — 60 seconds →

FeeFox provides factual comparisons of your card fees against published market rates. What you do next is your decision. We are not financial advisers and this is not financial advice.