Credit Card Surcharges Are Changing: What Allied Health Practices Need to Know

If your practice currently passes credit card surcharges on to clients, there’s an important change coming that’s worth getting across early.

From 1 October 2026, businesses will no longer be able to add card payment surcharges for payments made using designated eftpos, Mastercard and Visa cards. In simple terms? Those little extra card fees that get added to invoices are on their way out.

For allied health practices, this may apply to payments processed through your practice management system, such as Halaxy or Zanda, as well as in-clinic payments taken through providers like Tyro, Stripe or similar payment terminals.

So, if your practice currently adds a fee to client invoices to cover payment processing costs, this will need to be reviewed before the change comes into effect.

What does this mean for your practice?

At the moment, many practices pass card processing fees directly on to clients. It might appear as a percentage surcharge on an invoice, or as an extra fee added when a client pays by card.

From 1 October 2026, practices will need to stop adding these surcharges to client invoices for affected card payments.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean payment processing magically becomes free. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

It simply means those costs will need to be managed differently. For most practices, this may mean absorbing the cost as part of normal business expenses, reviewing overall fees, or building card payment costs into your pricing more broadly.

Why this matters now

While October 2026 may feel like a little while away, it’s worth planning ahead, especially if your practice processes most payments by card.

This is particularly relevant if:

• clients pay invoices online through Halaxy or Zanda

• you take in-clinic payments through Tyro, Stripe or another terminal

• your current fees are already tight

• you’ve been considering a fee increase

• you want your pricing to stay clear, compliant and easy for clients to understand

The key thing is that practices won’t be able to simply add a separate “card processing fee” to client invoices to recover those costs.

What should practices do?

Now is a good time to review:

• how your payment surcharges are currently being applied

• whether surcharge settings are turned on in your practice management system

• whether in-clinic payment terminals are adding a card fee

• how much your practice is currently paying in merchant/payment processing fees

• whether your standard consultation fees need to be reviewed before October 2026

It may also be worth speaking with your accountant or payment provider so you understand exactly what fees your practice is paying and how best to factor them into your pricing.

How Offsiters can help

If we support your practice, we can help check how surcharges are currently appearing in your systems and flag where updates may be needed closer to the changeover date.

We can also help with practical admin bits like updating website fee pages, checking invoice templates, updating client-facing wording, and making sure your payment information is clear and consistent. Because nothing says “fun afternoon” quite like hunting down surcharge settings in three different places.

But don’t worry — that’s exactly the kind of behind-the-scenes admin wrangling we’re here for.