If you’ve ever gone to pay and been told “there’s a 2% surcharge on Amex,” those days are numbered. American Express has confirmed it will stop merchants from surcharging Amex transactions from 1 October 2026 — and interestingly, it’s doing it by choice.
Here’s the full picture:
What Amex actually announced
Amex quietly updated its merchant website with a short notice confirming the change. In its own words:
“Amex supports the Reserve Bank of Australia’s recommendation to remove surcharging. We will update our Terms and Conditions for Amex Card Acceptance where required and we will implement these changes by 1 October 2026.”
In a fuller statement, Amex added that surcharging “creates a poor and inconsistent experience for consumers,” and that it will “align with these changes from 1 October 2026.”
Why this is a bigger deal than it sounds
This is all happening alongside the Reserve Bank of Australia’s wider payments reforms, which remove surcharging on Visa, Mastercard and eftpos from the same date.
But here’s the twist: American Express is a closed-loop network, which means it wasn’t actually covered by the RBA’s rules. Amex didn’t have to ban surcharging at all. It’s choosing to, most likely because being “the card that costs extra” was quietly pushing customers to reach for a different card at the checkout.
The catch nobody’s talking about
Removing the surcharge sounds like a straight win for consumers, and in a lot of ways it is. But there’s a detail worth understanding.
Amex has not reduced the fees it charges businesses to accept its cards. The only thing that’s changed is that merchants can no longer pass that cost on to you as a visible surcharge.
So the cost hasn’t disappeared — it’s just become invisible. Some businesses may quietly build it into their prices instead. You won’t see a line item anymore, but that doesn’t automatically mean things got cheaper.
What it means for you
For anyone who carries an Amex, this is genuinely good news day to day:
- No more awkward maths to calculate the “we charge extra for Amex” moments at the till
- Points 'cheaper' on surface level if prices remain the same
And that last point matters most if you’re chasing points.
Why points earners should care
Amex cards are often the strongest earners in your wallet — but surcharges have long been the reason people avoid using them. If a shop added 2% to use Amex, that surcharge frequently wiped out the value of the points you’d earn, so sometimes the 'smart' move was to pay another way with cheaper fees.
From 1 October, that maths flips. Wherever Amex is accepted, you can reach for your best-earning card without the surcharge penalty — which means more points on the same spending you were doing anyway.
The only thing that doesn’t change: Amex still isn’t accepted everywhere. Surcharge or not, you’ll still want a Visa or Mastercard as a backup for the places that don’t take it.
The bottom line
From 1 October 2026, paying with Amex should be simpler and surcharge-free almost everywhere it’s accepted. That is in theory if businesses keep all other costs the same.
Source: American Express