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About 26% of Australian merchants have imposed surcharges on credit card payments, and another 39% plan to do so within the next few months, according to survey results from Australia-based banking research firm East & Partners. The findings are based on survey responses from some 2,500 merchants over the last six months. Among small businesses-those with annual revenues of between AU$1 million (US$885,000 or 593,000 euros) and AU$5 million-11% said they imposed credit card surcharges, up from 5.3% last year. A main reason to assess the surcharges, survey respondents said, was an increase in the fees merchants pay banks for credit card transactions. "We have seen recent increases in merchant-service fees in the Australian market and are expecting this will start to feed through into surcharges," Zoran Knezevic, an analyst for the firm, tells CardLine Global. Surcharges generally run between 1.6% and 2% of the transaction value, Knezevic says, though some merchants, including those who operate taxis, charge as much as 10%.
