In Australia, debit and credit cards are the most common non-cash payment methods at “points of sale” (POS) or via ATMs. Not all merchants provide eftpos facilities, but those who wish to accept eftpos payments must enter an agreement with one of the seven merchant service providers, which rent an eftpos terminal to the merchant. The eftpos system in Australia is managed by Eftpos Payments Australia Ltd, which also sets the EFTPOS interchange fee. For credit cards to be accepted by a merchant a separate agreement must be entered into with each credit card company, each of which has its own flexible merchant fee rate.The clearing arrangements for eftpos are regulated by Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA). The system for ATM and eftpos interchanges is called Consumer Electronic Clearing System (CECS) also called CS3. CECS required authorisations from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which was obtained in 2001 and reaffirmed in 2009. ATM and EFTPOS clearances are the made under individual bilateral arrangements between the institutions involved.

Debit cards[edit]

Australian financial institutions provide their customers a plastic card, which can be used as a debit card or as an ATM card, and sometimes as a credit card. The card merely provides the means by which a customer's linked bank or other accounts can be accessed using an EFTPOS terminal or ATM. These cards can also be used on some vending machines and other automatic payment mechanisms, such as ticket vending machines. Australian debit cards cannot be used for online and telephone banking transactions, unless they are also a credit card.Each Australian bank has given a different name to its debit cards, such as:Some banks offer alternative debit card facilities to their customers using the Visa or MasterCard clearance system. For example, St George Bank offers a Visa Debit Card, as does the National Australia Bank. The main difference with regular debit cards is that these cards can be used outside Australia where the respective credit card is accepted.