How to read your merchant statement

Your provider sends a merchant statement each month, and the RBA's advice to any business wanting lower card costs starts with it: understand the statement and what drives your payment costs, then check whether your plan still suits you.^[5] Statements vary a lot. Some list every card type; some merchants on single-rate plans get very little detail about what kind of cards their customers used.^[1]

Find the four numbers

• Card takings: the total value of card sales for the month.
• Number of transactions: how many card sales that was.
• Merchant service fees: the fees charged on those sales, in dollars.
• Other fees: terminal rental, any minimum monthly fee, and anything else charged on top.

From those, two figures do most of the work. Your real rate is all the fees divided by card takings. Your average sale is takings divided by transactions. In the calculator's starting example, $30,000 of takings over 1,200 sales is a $25 average sale, and $480 of fees is a real rate of 1.6%.

Read the other fees closely

Fixed monthly fees weigh most in quiet months. NAB's plan rents its terminal for $25 a month;^[6] in a $5,000 month that rental alone is 0.5% of takings, on top of the advertised rate. Westpac charges a minimum merchant service fee of $22 a month per terminal when the month's card fees come to less,^[3] which at its 0.79% rate is any month under about $2,785 of card takings. If your statement shows a minimum-fee top-up, your real rate is higher than the advertised one.

Work out your card mix

Look for a breakdown by card: eftpos, Visa and Mastercard debit, credit, American Express and cards issued overseas. The mix matters because the cards cost very different amounts to accept. Across all Australian merchants in the June quarter 2026, the average fee was 0.43% on eftpos, 0.56% on Visa debit, 1.00% on Visa credit, 1.36% on American Express and about 2.95% on credit cards issued overseas.^[4]

A business whose customers mostly tap debit cards can usually get a lower rate than one full of credit and overseas cards. If much of your debit goes through Visa or Mastercard rather than eftpos, ask your provider about least-cost routing, which lets you send dual-network debit cards through the cheaper network.^[1] Some plans advertise it; NAB's names it Merchant Choice Routing.^[6]

A cost-of-acceptance line isn't permission to surcharge

Your statement may still show a cost of acceptance, the figure providers reported so merchants could work out the most they were allowed to surcharge.^[1] It can stay on the statement for information, but since 1 October 2026 the no-surcharge rules apply however your costs are presented.^[2]

What changes from April 2027

The RBA has set a minimum breakdown every statement must give. Domestic debit and prepaid cards and credit cards are split into in-person and online payments, each by network (eftpos, Mastercard, Visa), and cards issued overseas get lines of their own. For every line the statement must show the value and number of transactions and the merchant service fee in dollars and as a percentage.^[1]

Providers must comply for the first full statement period starting on or after 1 April 2027; until 31 March 2027 a statement in either the old or the new format counts as compliant.^[1] American Express isn't part of the requirement yet; the RBA will consider it in a later review.^[1]

Then put the numbers to work

Providers need exactly these figures to quote you: your volumes and values, your average transaction and your card mix.^[1] Enter them in the calculator to rank published plans on your own business, and from 30 January 2027 watch for the largest acquirers' published figures on how much of the October interchange cut they passed on.^[1]

Real rate = every fee on the statement ÷ card takings. Compare that, not the advertised rate.