Australia’s Reserve Bank has given credit card companies the power to limit surcharges merchants charge customers for using the cards and which are thought to add up to about $1 billion a year.
For over a year, the Reserve Bank has been trying to stamp out unreasonable credit card surcharges, which it thinks should be only about 1% of the transaction. But consumer advocacy groups say merchants’ surcharges are often much higher.
Taxi companies often put add a 10% surcharge for the use of a credit card, and on some domestic airline flights the surcharge can be as much as 24%.
