Free tool · Australia
What card fees actually cost you in a year
A rate of “1.6%” sounds like nothing. Multiplied by a year of turnover it is usually the third or fourth biggest line in a small business's costs, and almost nobody has ever seen it written down as a single number. Put your real numbers in and find out.
What it costs you
Why the annual number is the one that matters
Payment providers quote you a percentage because a percentage is small. “One point six percent” and “a dollar ninety on a sale” both sound like rounding errors, and they are designed to. The number nobody puts in front of you is the same rate multiplied by a year of trading.
On $60,000 a month - a modest suburban salon or a quiet pub - a 1.6% card-present rate is $11,520 a year. At 2.2% it is $15,840. The gap between those two rates, which reads as six-tenths of one percent on a pricing page, is $4,320 a year. That is a part-time wage, or a fit-out payment, or the difference between a good year and a flat one.
The published rates this calculator uses
| Provider | In person | Online | Monthly | Published rates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square | 1.6% | 2.2% | $0/mo | Source |
| Zeller | 1.4% | 1.7% + 25c | $0/mo | Source |
| Tyro | 1.4% | 1.4% | $29/mo | Source |
| Stripe | 1.7% + A$0.10 | 1.7% + A$0.30 | $0/mo | Source |
| Fresha | Not published - see note | Not published | Not published | Source |
Rates as at 14 August 2026. Square's published fee schedule does not state whether its processing rates include GST; Zeller, Tyro and Stripe all state theirs do. We show every rate exactly as the provider publishes it and do not adjust one to match another - grossing up a competitor's number would be inventing a price they do not charge.
How the calculator works out the number
- Your monthly turnover is split into card-present and online buckets using the slider.
- The number of transactions in each bucket is your bucket turnover divided by your average transaction value. This is what makes fixed cents-per-transaction fees visible - Stripe's 30c online charge costs a business with $20 tickets three times what it costs a business with $60 tickets, on identical turnover.
- Each bucket is charged at that provider's published rate for that bucket: percentage of value, plus any fixed amount per transaction.
- International volume is charged at the provider's published international rate where they publish one. Only Stripe does. For everyone else we apply their domestic rate, which means the figure we show for them could be too low, not too high. We would rather understate a competitor than overstate one.
- Published monthly fees are added, then the monthly total is multiplied by twelve.
What it deliberately leaves out
- Hardware. A terminal is a one-off cost that varies by model and by deal, and folding it into an annual rate comparison flatters whoever happens to be running a promotion.
- Chargeback fees, refund handling and PCI charges. These vary too much by business to model honestly.
- Negotiated rates. Tyro publishes that businesses over $20k a month can ask for a custom quote, Square says the same for larger sellers, and Stripe and Zeller both offer custom pricing. If you are anywhere near those volumes, the published rate is a starting point for a negotiation, not your real price.
- The software sitting on top. That is a separate line, and it is the one we compete on.
Questions people actually ask
Which provider is cheapest?
It depends on your mix, which is the entire reason this calculator exists. On the published rates as at 14 August 2026, Tyro and Zeller both publish 1.4% for in-person payments, below Square's 1.6% - but Tyro also publishes a monthly terminal fee of $29 for Pro or $19 for Pro Lite, which Zeller and Square do not, so at low turnover that monthly fee can wipe out the rate advantage and at high turnover it becomes trivial. Online is a different contest again: Zeller publishes 1.7% + 25c and Stripe 1.7% + A$0.30 against Square's 2.2%. Put your own numbers in. If a competitor comes out ahead for your mix, the calculator will say so - a comparison that always picks the house is worthless to you and easy for anyone to disprove.
Do these rates include GST?
Zeller, Tyro and Stripe each state that their published rates include GST. Square's published fee schedule does not say either way for its core processing rates - it specifies GST treatment only for Afterpay, which it quotes excluding GST. We have not adjusted Square's figures to guess at it, because a guess in either direction would misstate what they charge. If you are comparing to the cent, ask Square to confirm in writing.
Why is Fresha not priced?
Because Fresha does not publish an Australian payment-processing rate anywhere we could find it on 14 August 2026. Their /for-business/pricing URL returns a 404, the pricing page that does load describes the software charge as being per bookable team member without a crawlable Australian rate, and their support subdomain redirects to marketing. We are not prepared to print a number for a named competitor that we cannot source. Ask Fresha for their current Australian rate in writing and put it into the custom rate field above - it will be compared against everyone else properly.
Can I still pass these fees on to customers?
Until 1 October 2026, yes, within limits - you may not surcharge more than what accepting that card type actually costs you, and the ACCC enforces that. From 1 October 2026, eftpos, Mastercard and Visa are each introducing no-surcharge rules and American Express has said it will do the same, so surcharging on those networks stops. The full explanation is here.
Does BookMyVenue take a cut of these payments?
No. BookMyVenue charges a flat monthly software fee and takes zero commission on bookings. Your card processing relationship stays with whichever provider you choose and we do not sit in the middle of it or mark it up. That is also why we are willing to publish a calculator that sometimes recommends someone else - we do not earn from the answer.
Once you know the number, the next question is what you do about it
BookMyVenue is booking, ordering and POS software with published pricing and zero commission on every booking. It does not replace your payment provider and it does not change your processing rate - but it does mean the software sitting on top of those payments costs a flat monthly fee instead of a slice of every sale.