罗斯·苏拉塞（Ross Surace）正准备将咖啡的价格上调50澳分，将帕尼尼（panini）的价格上调1澳元（约合0.70美元）。澳大利亚从周四开始禁止商家对信用卡交易收取额外费用。
Ross Surace is preparing to raise the price of a coffee by 50 Australian cents and a panini by A$1 (US$0.70) when the country bans credit card surcharge fees starting on Thursday.
这家位于墨尔本穆尼庞兹（Moonee Ponds）地区的Lennox Street Deli咖啡馆的联合经营者表示，银行强制收取的信用卡手续费每周已给他的生意带来超过1000澳元（约合690美元）的额外成本；尽管咖啡馆通过向顾客的信用卡付款中收取1.9%的手续费来部分弥补这些费用，但这一做法仍无法完全覆盖所有支出。苏拉塞估计，一旦禁止信用卡手续费的政策正式实施，咖啡馆每周在处理交易方面的额外成本将增加1200至1500澳元。
The co-owner of Lennox Street Deli in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds neighbourhood said bank-imposed card fees already cost his business more than A$1,000 (US$690) a week, even after the cafe recoups some of the expense by adding a 1.9 per cent surcharge to customers’ card payments. Once that option disappears, Surace estimates the cafe could pay an additional A$1,200 to A$1,500 a week to process transactions.
他表示：“这次涨价只是为了弥补我们因禁止信用卡手续费而遭受的损失。”
The coffee and panini price increase “just covers the surcharge that we’re losing”, he said.
数千家澳大利亚的小型企业面临着类似的抉择：要么自己承担顾客使用信用卡所产生的费用，从而进一步压缩本已微薄的利润空间；要么将这些费用转嫁给消费者，但这样做可能会吓跑那些资金紧张的顾客。
Thousands of smaller Australian businesses face a similar choice: absorb the cost of customers tapping their cards, squeezing already thin margins, or build it into prices and risk driving away cash-strapped consumers.
这一变化是澳大利亚储备银行（RBA）几十年来对该国支付系统进行的最大规模改革之一，然而对于那些已经面临工资上涨、通货膨胀以及消费者消费意愿下降等挑战的零售商和餐馆来说，这无疑是一个艰难的抉择。
The change is one of the biggest shake-ups of the country’s payments system by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in decades, but comes at a difficult time for retailers and restaurants already grappling with higher wages, inflation and weak discretionary spending.
澳大利亚零售委员会（Australian Retail Council）的首席经济学家格伦·费希（Glenn Fahey）指出：“供应链成本和其他运营成本都在上升，而消费者则在严格控制自己的开支。企业在面对高度竞争的市场环境时，必须权衡这些成本与提高价格所带来的风险。”
“Supply chain cost increases and other operating costs have risen, while customers are carefully watching what they spend,” said Glenn Fahey, chief economist at the Australian Retail Council. “Businesses have to weigh up those costs against the risk of raising prices in a highly competitive market.”
根据澳大利亚中央银行的数据，目前约有16%的澳大利亚企业会对信用卡交易收取额外费用，消费者每年因此支付的手续费总额约为16亿澳元（约合11亿美元）。
Merchants will no longer be able to impose surcharges on payments made with Visa, Mastercard and eftpos debit and credit cards. American Express and China’s UnionPay are also removing surcharges, while PayPal follows from October 5.
这项禁令并未阻止银行、信用卡网络或支付服务提供商向商家收取处理交易的相关费用。不过，商家不能再将这些费用直接转嫁给消费者（即不能再将这些费用作为额外的收费项目）。这意味着原本高达16亿澳元的费用最终可能会通过提高商品价格的形式转嫁给消费者。
About 16 per cent of Australian businesses currently surcharge, according to the central bank, with consumers paying about A$1.6 billion (US$1.1 billion) annually in the fees. The ban does not stop banks, card networks or payment providers from charging businesses to process transactions. Instead, merchants can no longer pass those costs directly to customers as a separate fee – meaning some of that A$1.6 billion could ultimately resurface in higher prices.
澳大利亚的新政策使其与英国及欧洲经济区（EEA）的法规保持一致——在这些地区，大多数消费类借记卡和信用卡的附加费用都是被禁止的。这项政策的实施旨在废除二十多年前出台的那些旨在鼓励消费者使用更便宜支付方式的法规。不过，由于如今现金在澳大利亚的交易中仅占约15%的份额，这一政策的初衷已经基本不再适用。澳大利亚央行表示，这一变化将提高消费者的透明度。
Australia’s new policy brings it in line with the UK and European Economic Area (EEA), where surcharges on most consumer debit and credit cards are banned. The changes unwind a system introduced more than two decades ago to steer shoppers towards cheaper payment methods. But with cash now accounting for only about 15 per cent of Australian transactions, that rationale has largely disappeared. The central bank says the change should deliver greater transparency for consumers.
“消费者在购买商品时所看到的价格，实际上就是他们使用信用卡支付时需要支付的价格，”澳大利亚储备银行（RBA）支付政策负责人埃利斯·康诺利（Ellis Connolly）在采访中表示。
“The price that the consumer sees when they’re shopping for the good ends up being the price they pay when they tap their card,” Ellis Connolly, the RBA’s head of payments policy, said in an interview.
这一政策的影响在澳大利亚随处可见的咖啡馆和餐馆中尤为明显——这些场所的利润空间本来就很薄。根据代表5.7万家餐饮企业的澳大利亚餐饮协会（Restaurant & Catering Australia）的主席约翰·哈特（John Hart）的数据，去年餐馆的平均净利润仅为2.6%。
The impact will be particularly visible in Australia’s ubiquitous cafes and restaurants, where margins are thin. The average restaurant made a net profit of just 2.6 per cent last year, according to John Hart, national president of Restaurant & Catering Australia, which represents 57,000 eateries and caterers.
“他们担心的是，在重新设定菜单价格时，这些变化可能会使菜单价格变得过高，从而影响消费者的购买意愿，”哈特说。
“What they’re concerned about is that in resetting menu prices, they’re going to push menu prices to a point where it will affect demand,” Hart said.
大型连锁企业受到的影响相对较小，因为这些企业通常很少收取额外费用；而小型企业则更容易受到冲击。MST Financial公司的零售分析师克雷格·伍尔福德（Craig Woolford）指出，零售商的利润率通常在5%到10%之间。
Large listed chains are relatively insulated because surcharging is already rare among them, while smaller businesses are more exposed. Retailers typically had profit margins of about 5 per cent to 10 per cent, said Craig Woolford, senior consumer discretionary and retail analyst at MST Financial.
“如果你的利润率只有 5%，而你必须承担额外的 1% 成本，那么你的收益将会减少 20%。”他说，“我们会看到一些小型企业会尽可能地将这些成本转嫁给消费者。”澳大利亚储备银行（RBA）试图通过降低商家银行在交易中向持卡人银行支付的手续费来减轻这一影响。从周四开始，国内消费信用卡交易的手续费上限将降至 0.3%，使澳大利亚的政策更加接近英国和欧洲经济区（EEA）的法规。
“If you’re sitting at a 5 per cent margin and you’ve got to absorb an extra percentage point, then you have a 20 per cent hit to earnings,” he said. “We will see smaller businesses attempt to pass it on where they can.”The RBA is trying to soften the blow by simultaneously lowering interchange fees, which merchants’ banks pay to cardholders’ banks on transactions. From Thursday, the maximum rate on domestic consumer credit card transactions will fall to 0.3 per cent, bringing Australia further in line with UK and EEA policy.
零售委员会（Retail Council）的 Fahey 表示，这项措施能够抵消多少额外费用，取决于支付服务提供商最终会向消费者收取多少费用。“至关重要的是，这些费用减免能够真正惠及零售商，尤其是小型企业。”位于维多利亚州莫宁顿半岛的 Arthur’s Seat Eagle 游乐场（一个每年吸引约 27 万名游客的缆车景点）已经将这笔额外费用纳入了门票价格中；该景点的首席执行官 Matthew Mulkearns 表示，这些变化每年将给该景点带来数十万美元的损失。
How much that offsets the surcharge ban would depend on how much payment providers pass through, the Retail Council’s Fahey said. “It’s critical that the fee savings reach retailers, especially smaller operators.”The surcharge ban has already been factored into ticket prices at Arthurs Seat Eagle, a scenic gondola attraction on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula that draws about 270,000 visitors a year. Chief executive officer Matthew Mulkearns said the changes were expected to cost the operator hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
“我们会仔细评估这些变化对我们造成的实际影响，”Mulkearns 说，“然后，像所有企业一样，我们可能会考虑是否需要收取服务费或管理费用。”
“We’re going to have a really good hard look at what the net cost to us is,” Mulkearns said. “Then we might, like all businesses, consider whether we need to introduce a service fee or an admin charge for our ticketing.”