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Important: Changes to card processing fees from Today - 1 October 2026

1 October 2026

Hi {first_name},

The day we have been talking about has arrived, credit card surcharges are changing. So here is exactly what it means for your events with 123 Tix and what has changed on your account.

From today, 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia's ban on card surcharges takes effect. Businesses can no longer add a separate fee to a customer's purchase because they chose to pay by card. This applies to Visa, Mastercard, eftpos and American Express, both online and in person.

What this means for your 123 Tix account

1. Our booking fees are not changing. It is still $1.00 per ticket online and $0.50 per ticket at the gate, and free tickets remain completely fee-free.

2. The card processing fee will no longer appear at checkout. Your customers will not see the 1.47% online or 1.85% gate card processing fee added to their order.

3. The card processing fee are also not changing. It is now taken from your ticket sales. The rates are the same as before (1.47% online and 1.85% for card payments at the gate) and they are deducted from your ticket revenue when we calculate your payout. We have applied this automatically to all events using 123 Collect, including events already on sale, so there is nothing you need to switch on.

A quick example: on a $30 ticket sold online, card processing comes to about 45 cents. Previously your customer paid that on top of the ticket price. From today it comes out of the $30 you receive.

What you may like to do

Many organisers will choose to build this cost into their ticket price. A small adjustment can cover it, and you can update the price of tickets that have not yet been sold at any time. Tickets already sold, stay as they are.

If you let your customers know why a price has changed, please keep it accurate. The ACCC has said businesses should not blame a total price increase on the surcharge ban if other costs have also gone up.

If you use your own Stripe account (Stripe Collect), your booking fees are unchanged and Stripe continues to bill you for card processing directly. The same rule applies: no separate card fee to your customers.

Our approach to fees

123 Tix has always taken pride in clear, transparent fees. That is why we showed card processing costs as their own line and passed them through at cost. Under the RBA's new rules that is no longer allowed, so the card processing fee has been taken out of checkout and is now absorbed through your ticket revenue, as explained above.

We have chosen to follow the rules to the letter, and we did that with your interests in mind. It removes any risk of customer complaints, including on social media, and of penalties from regulators or card networks, so you and your customers are protected from that risk.

You may notice that some other platforms continue to charge a percentage-based fee, with card processing costs built into a single price. That is a different way of structuring fees, and it is something we will be reviewing over the next few months to decide the best path forward for 123 Tix and our valued organisers.

If you would like to talk to us directly about your fees, please do. We expect some of you may receive calls from other platforms hoping to use this change to their advantage, so if you have any concerns about our current position, please speak with us first.

Warm regards,

Terry & the 123 tix Team.