Surcharge ban will leave some renters in the lurch
A new ban on credit card surcharge fees has led major payment platforms like Macquarie Bank's DEFT to stop accepting credit cards for rent payments. This change leaves some tenants without a viable way to pay rent, as banks move to comply with new Reserve Bank regulations.
Why it matters
It illustrates the unintended consequences of financial regulation on consumer access to essential services like housing payments.
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Share A A A Tenants who rely on credit cards to pay their rent could soon be forced into arrears, advocates warn, after a major rental payment platform blocked the method of payment in response to a new ban on card surcharge fees.
Ahead of the surcharge ban and the Reserve Bank’s broader reforms to Australia’s payments systems that came into effect from Thursday , Macquarie Bank said it would no longer accept cards from the same date on its DEFT platform, one of the nation’s largest payments systems, which processes about 1.2 million rent transactions each month.
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