- Woman charged 10 per cent by restaurant
An Aussie mum has been slugged with a ‘ridiculous’ surcharge – 10% of her bill, or $7.80 – just to use her Eftpos card at a popular waterfront restaurant.
Alera scanned a QR code on the table to order and pay for her birthday lunch at the Surfers Pavilion on the Gold Coast on Wednesday.
‘I just got whacked with a $7.80 surcharge for using Eftpos,’ she fumed in a TikTok video.
‘Like, seriously – that is surely way too much!’
Alera paid the ‘exorbitant’ fee without realising it had been applied
The Queensland woman said she checked the invoice and thought it was a mistake – but was told that it was a ‘processing fee’ for the simple act of paying electronically.
‘I thought it was a mistake and they’d look and give us a refund or a free drink, but the waiter said, ‘Oh no that’s our Eftpos fee’,’ she told Yahoo Finance.
‘If that was just me paying at the bar, I probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it and I would just tap away, but I had the receipt emailed to me and could see it.’
Surcharges such as this are likely to be more commonplace in the future – as Reserve Bank figures show the use of cash declining.
The use of cash is quickly declining in Australia in favour of card and mobile phone payments
Alera used a QR code on the table to order and pay for her birthday lunch at Surfers Pavilion on the Gold Coast on Wednesday, not knowing she was being hit with a $7.80 surcharge
Cash is so unpopular that Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock last December warned customers could struggle to find an ATM in the future.
The RBA also found that mobile technology has accelerated a transition to cashless transactions, especially for purchases under $50.
Daily Mail Australia approached Surfers Pavilion for comment.
