https://www.westpac.com.au/business-banking/merchant-services/manage/fees-and-charges/

 

Credit card merchant service fees When your customers use a Visa or MasterCard® credit card to make a payment, we charge a combined Credit Card Merchant Service Fee. This fee is based on volume and value per card type and is charged as a % of either the net or gross dollar value processed.
Interchange fee This is the fee we pay to the card issuer (bank or other financial institution) that supplied the Card to your customer. Interchange fees vary depending on: The brand of the card, e.g. MasterCard Where the card was issued, e.g. Australia or overseas How the transaction was processed, e.g. card present or card not present Card product type, e.g. premium card, business card Merchant industry type, e.g. Merchant Category Code
On charge scheme fees Card schemes (such as Visa and MasterCard) charge us fees when they process your transactions (known as “Scheme Fees”). Scheme Fees per transaction vary depending on: The brand of the card (e.g. MasterCard) Where the card was issued (e.g. Australia or overseas) The On Charged Scheme Fees reflect your allocation of the aggregate Scheme Fees that we incur and pass on to you based on our calculation of the Card transaction types processed by you. Just like Scheme Fees, the value of charge of an on Charged Scheme Fee is both per transaction and % value of the value of the transaction. Your statement will reflect the total charge in dollar terms and as calculated as a % of your total sale amount (identified as the weighted value).
Participation fee The monthly participation fee covers the administrative cost associated with the provision of your payment facility.
Terminal access fee When you process transactions electronically, you are charged an electronic terminal access fee This fee covers the cost of providing and maintaining the terminal The fee varies depending on the type of terminal you use.

A quick Primer on Fees

To understand what these changes all mean, I will first give a quick primer on the way the credit card system works. In a Visa or MasterCard credit card transaction, there are a number of parties:

  1. the merchant receiving the payment (“merchant”) by a credit or debit card,
  2. the bank that the merchant uses to provide processing services (“acquiring bank”),
  3. the bank that issued the card to the customer (“card issuing bank”) and
  4. the customer (“customer or cardholder”)

  5. the Credit Card scheme (“scheme”), which is Visa or  MasterCard

When making a payment on a card, in general the fees are

Fee Type Description
Interchange Fees These are the fees paid to the issuing bank when a transaction occurs. They vary widely depending on the type of card used, the way in which the payment was made, and by the type of business accepting the card

These are the fees that the RBA will be limiting to a weighted average of 0.5% and a maximum of 0.8% of the transaction value
Merchant Fees These are the fees that the merchant is charged by its acquiring bank for processing the credit card transaction.

These are the fees that the Merchant is recovering when they apply a credit card surcharge to a transaction
Assessment Fees These are the fees received by Visa or MasterCard when processing a transaction.

The current set of regulations do not address these fees.