The Commonwealth Bank is urging major changes to fees for millions of Australians amid customer anger
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has urged the Reserve Bank to scrap surcharges on debit and credit card payments, in a move that could save Australians thousands of dollars a year.
Australian Financial Review Details of the application were first published on Friday, before it was made public.
Australians spend about $1 billion in surcharges each year, according to consumer research firm Canstar.
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The Reserve Bank is currently assessing surcharges to ensure the fairness of the system.
The Albanian government already supports the removal of the surcharge on debit payments, which Treasurer Jim Chalmers said would happen pending the RBA report.
The Commonwealth Bank says this should extend to credit card users.
Mastercard took the same position as the CBA in its submissions to the RBA.
On Friday, reporter Rosanna Kingson explained the changes to Sunrise.
“The Reserve Bank is reviewing the payment system to ensure it is fair and fit for purpose,” Kingson said.
“Under this review, the government has promised to abolish debit card fees by the end of the year.
“The Commonwealth Bank is expected to say in its report to the RBA that the simplest solution is to get rid of all card surcharges.
“However, other banks do not support extending the ban to credit cards. Small businesses want card fees scrapped altogether, arguing that if they were banned, the fees would simply be included in the rates.
“The Treasurer said he wants to ensure there are no unintended consequences for businesses while ensuring customers are not penalized for using digital payments.”
In December, CBA backed away from a planned $3 subsidized withdrawal fee that would have been linked to Smart Access accounts to which Complete Access customers would have been automatically transferred.
“We have clearly done a poor job of communicating aspects of this change to our customers,” CommBank CEO Angus Sullivan said at the time.
“We know changes are difficult, especially this time of year.”
