Credit card merchant fees
When a customer makes a payment by credit card, Council incurs a charge by the bank for processing this card payment, this is known as a merchant fee.
Until now, Council has absorbed the bank surcharges incurred when customers pay by credit card. The cost to Council has grown significantly and these funds could be better spent on facilities and services for our community.
Council is passing on bank fees to customers who pay by credit card. As a result, we expect to have an extra $200,000 to spend on facilities and services for our community each financial year.
Merchant fee rates
Payments made by credit card will incur a surcharge of 0.60%.
Payments made using debit cards or EFTPOS cards will be free of charge, providing our community alternate payment options by card.
| Card Type |
Surcharge Fee |
| MasterCard or Visa (credit card only) |
0.60% |
| Debit/Prepaid/EFTPOS |
No fee |
The credit card merchant fee rate is subject to annual review and is determined by the bank cost of acceptance calculation.
How to calculate what the merchant fee will be on a payment
If your payment amount is $384 your calculation would be: (384 x 0.6) divided by 100 = $2.30.
When you make a payment using your credit card, the system will calculate this fee for you and you can accept to proceed with making a payment or choose to exit without making a payment.
GST and merchant fees
Where a fee includes GST the merchant fee will be calculated on this component and where a fee doesn’t include GST it will not.
Payment options that do not incur a merchant fee
- BPAY (even if you do use a credit card)
- Paying by debit cards (online, in person, direct debit, over the phone)
- Cheque, cash or money order
- Australia Post in person (for rates payments, animal registrations and sundry debtor invoices)
What services do not incur the merchant fee?
The merchant fee will be progressively applied to a range of payments across Council services over the coming months.