Ask most Australian business owners what eftpos costs them, and they'll quote the transaction rate on the front of their contract. That number is almost never the real cost. It's the advertised price — the one the sales rep put in bold on page one. The actual cost of running eftpos in your business is a combination of that rate, the terminal, and a dozen smaller charges that don't get advertised.
In this guide we'll walk through every component of the cost of an eftpos machine in Australia, so you can work out what you're really paying — and whether it's fair.
Component 1: The Transaction Rate
This is the headline number. It's a percentage of every card transaction that goes to your provider, plus often a small fixed fee per transaction. It can be structured in three ways:
Blended rate
One flat rate applied to every card, no matter what. Simple to understand. Usually not the cheapest overall because you're averaging out low-cost debit and expensive premium cards at a middle rate.
Tiered pricing
Different rates for different card types — typically debit at one rate, credit at another, and premium/international cards at a higher rate again. More transparent than blended once you understand it, but providers sometimes use tiering to hide margin on the "premium" tier.
Interchange-plus
The most transparent structure. You pay the wholesale "interchange" rate set by Visa/Mastercard/eftpos, plus a fixed margin on top. The margin is the provider's actual income. This is the setup we push for with high-volume clients — it's almost always the cheapest once you exceed a modest monthly volume.
We cover these structures in more depth in our hidden fees article. The short version: don't compare headline rates across providers without understanding which structure they're using.
Component 2: Terminal Costs
The hardware in your hand has a real cost. Depending on the deal, you'll either:
- Own the terminal outright — a one-off purchase, usually a few hundred dollars for a basic countertop or more for a smart Android-based model.
- Rent it monthly — a fixed rental fee on top of your processing. Adds up fast over a 36–48 month contract.
- Get it "free" with the deal — but the cost is usually recouped elsewhere. See Is Free Eftpos Really Free? for the breakdown.
Smart terminals (the ones with a big touchscreen, WiFi, 4G, and an app store) cost more than old-school countertop terminals but often pay for themselves through faster checkout and integration with your POS.
Component 3: Monthly Service Fees
Almost every provider charges a monthly minimum or service fee. This is the fee you pay even if your processing is zero. It's usually named something like:
- Monthly service fee
- Merchant service fee
- Minimum monthly charge
- Account maintenance fee
For a small business processing $10k–$20k a month, this fee can easily add up to more than the card processing itself. Check what the minimum monthly cost is, including months when you're quiet (holidays, off-season).
Component 4: Settlement Fees
Some providers charge for every settlement (the daily payout into your bank account). Some charge extra for same-day or weekend settlement. A small per-settlement fee doesn't sound like much — until you multiply it by 365 days a year and add it up.
We explain the settlement landscape properly in our same-day settlement guide.
Component 5: The Small Stuff That Adds Up
This is where things get sneaky. Depending on your provider, you may also pay:
- PCI compliance fees — a recurring monthly fee for data security compliance. Sometimes legitimate, often inflated.
- Terminal paper rolls — charged at a markup if you order through the provider.
- Statement fees — a charge for receiving a paper statement (a monthly fee to receive a document telling you what you were charged).
- Chargeback and dispute fees — when a customer disputes a transaction, you pay an admin fee even if you win.
- Non-standard card surcharges — premium cards, international cards, and commercial cards are often charged at a significantly higher rate.
- International transaction fees — a cross-border fee on cards issued outside Australia.
- Terminal replacement or repair fees — if the terminal dies outside warranty.
Individually these are small. Collectively, they can add 0.2–0.5% to your effective rate. On a business processing $50k a month, that's hundreds of dollars going somewhere other than into the headline rate.
How to Work Out Your Real Effective Rate
The single most useful calculation you can do is your effective rate:
Effective rate = (Total amount paid to eftpos provider this month) ÷ (Total card turnover this month) × 100
Add up everything — transaction fees, monthly fees, PCI fees, paper rolls, the lot — and divide by your total card turnover. That percentage is what your eftpos actually costs you per dollar processed.
Now compare that to the headline rate on your contract. In almost every case we look at, the effective rate is meaningfully higher than the advertised one. The gap between the two is where the real money lives.
What Does "Fair" Look Like in 2026?
We're careful about publishing specific numbers because every business's mix of debit, credit, tap-and-go, premium and online is different. A café taking 98% tap-and-go debit has a very different fair rate to a jewellery store taking 60% premium credit.
What we can say: if your effective rate is above 1.5% and you're a typical small business processing tap-and-go and debit, you're almost certainly paying too much. If you're above 2%, you've been gouged. If you're a high-risk business or you take a lot of Amex and premium credit, a higher effective rate may be reasonable.
The only way to know for sure is to look at your last statement and run the numbers. Most business owners never do this. Those that do are usually shocked.
How to Actually Reduce the Cost
A few practical levers:
- Turn on least-cost routing. For tap-and-go transactions, this routes debit taps through the cheapest network. Many businesses have it switched off by default.
- Switch to interchange-plus pricing if your volume is $30k+ a month.
- Negotiate out the extras. PCI fees, statement fees and paper rolls are often waivable.
- Reconsider "free terminal" deals. The free hardware is rarely the best overall deal.
- Use rewards to claw back cost. Qantas Points or cashback on your processing volume can offset a meaningful chunk — see our Qantas Points guide.
- Get a broker to shop the market. Every 12–24 months is a good cadence.
Our Honest Take
Eftpos is one of the few business expenses where the price is nearly always negotiable and nearly always paid above the market rate. The providers count on business owners being too busy to shop around. We count on the opposite — it's our entire business model.
At Eftpos Brokers, we compare 20+ providers for free. Send us your latest eftpos statement and we'll work out your real effective rate, identify the unnecessary fees, and tell you whether there's a meaningfully better option. If the answer is no, we'll tell you honestly.
Find Out What You're Really Paying
Book a 15-minute chat. Bring your last statement. We'll do the maths and show you exactly where every dollar goes.
Book your free consultation here or call us free on 1800 595 340.