Many Aussies have joined small businesses to call on the Reserve Bank of Australia to act on “crippling debit card transaction fees for both businesses and consumers”, 12,978 Aussies to be exact.
That’s how many Aussie have signed the petition established by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA).
Additionally, nine other leading small business organisations have helped begin the petition, and they say the inaction by the Reserve Bank of Australia will continue to impose high costs on small local businesses that are already struggling due to Covid restrictions.
Businesses are said to often pay higher fees than they should for debit card purchases because the lowest cost payment route (usually eftpos) is not the default. These higher fees ultimately hurt all Australians, with small and family businesses impacted the most.
“With the impact of Covid already causing financial pressures to businesses, the last thing we need is to add greater stress to them,” says COSBOA CEO Alexi Boyd.
“We are calling on the RBA to make a fair and equitable environment for businesses in terms of payments and merchant fees.”
Ms Boyd also says that the RBA needs to work with the banks to eradicate the confusing pricing methods introduced by the big banks over recent years.
“We have evidence where small businesses have asked about LCR and their banks have come back with a new service proposal where transaction fees were increased by 275% compared to existing pricing, and the previously free terminal rental had a surprising new monthly fee, potentially putting the business in a worse position overall.”
She continues, “This cannot keep going on like this, and we urge RBA and Federal Government to make low-cost payments the default for local and small business, so we ensure the future of Australia’s local payment network, eftpos, as a choice on all debit cards.”
The petition can be found here.