Square's Australian Instant Transfer fee has risen to 1.95%

Getting a Square payment into the bank immediately now costs Australian sellers more. Square’s Instant Transfer fee rose from 1.5% to 1.95% on 1 October 2026, according to its updated Australian Payment Terms.

The free standard next-day option remains available. For an owner or bookkeeper, the useful check is how often the business chooses the paid shortcut and whether that timing is needed.

This adds an important detail to our Square and Stripe card-fee comparison, published before October. The transfer charge deserves its own line in a payment-cost review.

The cost of speed has changed

Square’s guidance on the end of card surcharging says its payment-processing pricing does not change on 1 October. The Instant Transfer increase concerns a separate service: moving eligible proceeds outside the ordinary next-day schedule.

Under section 11 of the Payment Terms, the transfer fee comes on top of processing charges and is deducted before the money reaches the linked bank account. A seller using only free standard transfers does not incur this Instant Transfer charge.

The distinction is worth keeping in the books. A card-processing percentage describes what it costs to accept the sale. A paid transfer describes the additional cost of getting the available money sooner. Reviewing only the first number leaves out the second.

What 1.95% means in dollars

These are illustrative calculations, using eligible proceeds after card-processing fees have already been deducted. They are transfer-fee examples, not the total cost of taking the underlying payments:

• A$500 transferred: A$9.75 at the new rate, compared with A$7.50 at 1.5%; an extra A$2.25
• A$1,000 transferred: A$19.50 instead of A$15; an extra A$4.50
• A$5,000 transferred: A$97.50 instead of A$75; an extra A$22.50

For the A$1,000 example, subtracting the A$19.50 transfer fee leaves A$980.50 to reach the bank account. On our arithmetic, the fee rate has risen by 0.45 percentage points, a 30% increase in the transfer charge for the same amount.

Frequency matters as much as any one transfer. Illustratively, A$20,000 of eligible proceeds sent instantly across a month would attract A$390 in transfer fees at 1.95%, compared with A$300 at the previous rate. That is a monthly total across transfers, not an amount available in one instant transfer.

Our recommendation is to use the business’s actual recent transfers for this calculation. Total the amounts sent instantly, multiply by 0.0195, then identify which payments genuinely needed to reach the bank early. This gives the owner a specific cost to review with the bookkeeper.

Check the free schedule before paying

Square’s transfer guide describes two no-extra-cost choices: standard automatic next-day transfers, and manual transfers that let sellers choose when to send funds on a next-day basis. Manual does not mean instant. Square says manual transfer requests received after midnight are sent to the bank on the second day; manual transfers do not occur on public holidays.

In Square Dashboard, the schedule is under Settings > Account & Settings > Money > Balance > Transfer settings. The owner or someone with balance permissions can check whether Automatic or Manual is selected and review the close-of-day setting.

Timing still needs care. The Payment Terms warn that next-day transfers can be delayed, including where a bank account is ineligible for real-time payments or the New Payments Platform experiences delays. Don’t treat a scheduled transfer as an unconditional arrival guarantee when a bill is due.

Instant transfers have limits too. Square lists a A$5 minimum and A$5,000 daily maximum; new sellers can have a A$500 daily limit. Check the account’s available amount rather than budgeting around the headline maximum.

Make the next review specific

Ask the bookkeeper to bring two records to the next payment-cost review: the processing charges and the amounts transferred instantly. Square’s fee guide says monthly GST invoices and processing rates are available in Account & Settings > Tax invoices in Dashboard.

Then agree who can authorise a paid transfer and what business need justifies it. That is our suggested spending-control step, rather than a Square requirement. A decision made once and written down is easier for staff to follow than a fresh judgement at every busy close of day.

Our card-surcharge explainer covers the separate customer-pricing changes. The Rules & costs hub collects related updates.

Checklist

• Check the transfer schedule in Square Dashboard. Have the owner or bookkeeper review Automatic or Manual and the close-of-day setting under Transfer settings.
• Recalculate recent Instant Transfer costs. Multiply eligible proceeds sent instantly by 1.95% and keep the result separate from card-processing fees.
• Check the account’s actual instant-transfer limit. Confirm the available amount before relying on an early transfer to meet a payment.
• Agree who approves paid transfers. Write down the business circumstances that justify paying for earlier access to funds.
• Review processing and transfer costs together. Bring Square’s monthly tax invoice and the business’s instant-transfer records to the next payment-cost review.