One booking fee for every card

From 1 October 2026, eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and American Express stopped businesses in Australia adding card surcharges. A card surcharge is an extra fee for paying with a particular card. The change follows a review by the Reserve Bank of Australia (opens in a new tab).

Booking fees are still allowed, as long as everyone pays the same fee however they pay.

From 30 September 2026, our booking fee briefly depended on where the card was issued, with a lower rate for Australian cards. Under the new rules, charging more for an overseas card counts as a card surcharge, so we've moved to one rate for everyone.

The booking fee pays for running bookings on canberra.events: ticketing, delivery, refunds, door check-in and support. Overseas cards also cost much more to process than Australian ones.

Rather than charge overseas buyers more, we've set one rate a little above our old Australian-card rate. We hope this small increase covers the mix of Australian and overseas cards we see, and the fees each one brings, so nobody pays more because of the card they use.

We want to be upfront about how we'll handle this from here.

• We'll keep a close eye on any further changes from the government, the Reserve Bank and the card networks.
• Overseas cards are due to get cheaper to process from 1 April 2027, and we'll review the fee then.
• If our costs come down, we'll pass the savings on as quickly as we can.
• If the fee turns out not to cover our costs, we'll review it and let organisers know before anything changes.

• Attendees: the total on the ticket page is what you pay. It no longer changes after you enter your card.
• Organisers: there's nothing to do. You still choose for each event whether attendees pay the booking fee or you absorb it.
• Earlier bookings keep the fee they were charged.
• Free events and door payments stay fee-free.

Questions? See the pricing page or contact support.