As you may already know, from October 1 the rules around credit card payments are changing in Australia.
Previously, businesses could choose whether to pass on the EFTPOS provider’s fee to customers. Under the new regulations, it is now illegal to do so.
What this means in real terms
Let's use a concrete example...
Say you buy nuts from us for $50. The EFTPOS provider takes 2%. So we get $49 of the $50 sale.
Later we go to buy coffee (because 4am market start requires caffeine) and pay $15. Again the EFTPOS provider takes 2%, so Charlie gets $14.70 instead of $15. The spending power of the original $50 is now down to $48.70.
And so it continues. With every transaction, a small slice of value leaks out of the system and goes to the middleman—whether that’s a bank, Square, PayPal, or any other payment provider.
The Hidden Leak in Community Currency
This means that the value of the currency flowing within your community is gradually diminishing in value. The circulation of money in return for goods and services in a community - which should in principle be a closed system, as value is exchanged on equal terms between individuals - has a leak. The system is not closed because of that little percentage leak that is dripping out and feeding the middlemen.
This means the value of your dollar gradually diminishes as it moves from person to person. It’s a leak none of us can plug; it’s built into the system.
Why Cash Keeps Value Intact
The most effective way to ensure that the value of your dollar remains constant on its journey around and about the community is to use cash. When you use cash, that $50 retains its value whether it is paying for coffee, nuts, a homeless person or the tooth fairy. Nothing leaks out.
How Totally Nuts is Responding
For online sales, nothing changes—cash isn’t an option there, and we’ve always absorbed those fees,
At the markets, however, we’ve made a decision that supports both our customers and our community:We will now offer a 2% discount for cash payments.
This isn’t about penalising card users. It’s about encouraging a payment method that keeps value local. We’d much rather see our hard‑earned dollars stay within our community than trickle out to nameless finance providers (who probably get enough anyway).