Australia

Cards dominate in stores. In 2025, cards were used for about 73% of all consumer payments (debit 49%, credit 23%) and cash for around 15%, slightly up from 13% in 2022. Tap-and-go is the norm, and phones and other devices accounted for around 40% of card payments, up from 31% in 2022; QR code payments remain rare, used by 10% of respondents in the past year. eftpos is the domestic debit network, and many debit cards also carry Visa or Mastercard, so merchants can route transactions to the cheaper network (least-cost routing). About three-quarters of businesses that take cards in person also accept cash.

In the RBA’s 2025 survey, 68% of respondents made at least one online payment during the diary week, and more than 80% of holiday-related purchases such as accommodation were made online, while petrol, supermarket and food purchases remained mostly in person. Mobile apps accounted for almost half of online payments. Large marketplaces include Amazon and eBay. Card surcharges, which had become more common, must end on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa cards from 1 October 2026, when the networks introduce no-surcharge rules, so merchants that surcharge will need to build card costs into their prices. PayPal, BNPL and other methods such as gift and prepaid cards together made up about a fifth of online payments in 2025.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board regulates card and payment systems. Following its review of merchant card payment costs, the RBA announced in March 2026 that surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa debit, prepaid and credit cards will end from 1 October 2026, when domestic interchange caps also fall to 8 cents (or 0.16%) for debit and prepaid cards and 0.3% for consumer credit cards; a 1.0% cap on foreign-issued cards follows from 1 April 2027, with new fee-transparency rules. ASIC licenses financial services firms and, since 10 June 2025, requires BNPL providers to hold an Australian credit licence. APRA supervises banks, and AUSTRAC administers anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules.

Account ownership is almost universal: the World Bank’s Global Findex 2025 found 98% of Australian adults had an account in 2024 and 92% owned a debit card. Cash still matters for some groups. The RBA’s 2025 survey found around half of Australians used cash in a typical week, about 1.5 million adults relied mainly on cash, and one-third would face hardship or major inconvenience if they could not withdraw cash. Around 10% of people over 65 used cash for all their transactions.