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A mobile EFTPOS machine used to mean one thing: a handheld terminal rented from your bank and paid for every month, whether you used it or not. In 2026 you have three real options. You can rent a portable terminal, buy a card reader outright, or use the phone already in your pocket with Tap to Pay. Each one suits a different kind of business, and the right choice comes down to how many people take payments, where they take them, and how often.
This guide compares what each option actually costs an Australian business, explains what changes now that the Reserve Bank has removed card surcharging from 1 October 2026, and shows when a phone-based setup beats a dedicated terminal and when it does not.
Option 1: Rent a portable EFTPOS machine
Bank and provider rentals typically cost about $25 to $40 per terminal per month, with transaction fees commonly between 1% and 1.6%. Many bank agreements carry a 12 to 36 month term. In return you get a dedicated device with a long battery, often a built-in receipt printer, and a replacement if it fails.
Rental suits a single fixed counter with steady daily volume. It gets expensive quickly when you need several devices, or when the terminals sit in a drawer between events. Three rented terminals at $30 a month cost $1,080 a year before a single payment is processed. We break down the full picture in what renting an EFTPOS machine really costs.
Option 2: Buy a card reader or terminal
Buying outright removes the monthly rental. Basic card readers start at around $59, and standalone terminals sit at roughly $199 to $299. There is no lock-in, but every extra staff member or stall still needs another device, and you carry the cost of replacing hardware that is lost, flat or broken. For a business that runs pop-ups, markets or seasonal events, managing that inventory becomes a job of its own.
Option 3: Use your phone as the mobile EFTPOS machine
Any recent iPhone or NFC-enabled Android can now accept contactless cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay directly, with no reader attached. This is often called SoftPOS or Tap to Pay. The customer taps their card or phone on the back of your device, and the payment runs through the same card networks and security standards as a traditional terminal.
With Pebl there is no hardware cost, no monthly fee and no lock-in contract. You pay a flat 1.80% per transaction, as set out on the Pebl pricing page, and you can add unlimited team members so every staff phone becomes a terminal under one business account. Setup takes about five minutes with Tap to Pay on iPhone or Tap to Pay on Android.
Mobile EFTPOS machine cost compared
Here is how the three options stack up for a business with three people taking payments at events, on job sites or on the shop floor:
- Rent three portable terminals: around $75 to $120 a month in rental before any transaction fees, usually on a 12 to 36 month term.
- Buy three readers or terminals: around $180 to $900 upfront, plus replacement costs, with no monthly fee.
- Three staff phones on Pebl: $0 hardware, $0 monthly, 1.80% per transaction, no term.
The trade-off is worth being clear about. A single high-volume counter can pay less overall on a rented terminal with a lower percentage rate, because the rental is spread across more sales. As a rough guide, a $30 monthly rental at a 1.1% rate breaks even with a 1.80% phone-based rate at around $4,300 a month in card sales per device. Below that, or wherever volume is uneven, the phone wins. It also wins whenever several people take payments, or when the payment happens away from a counter.
What changes after 1 October 2026
From 1 October 2026, businesses can no longer add a surcharge to debit, credit or prepaid card payments on the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks, as the RBA's surcharging FAQs explain. Lower interchange caps on domestic cards start from the same date. The practical effect is that your card acceptance cost is now yours to absorb, so fixed costs such as terminal rental matter more than they used to.
Card acceptance is not optional either. Cards made up 73% of in-person payments in the RBA's 2025 Consumer Payments Survey, and around 40% of card payments were made with a phone or other device. A customer who wants to tap expects you to take it, wherever you happen to be standing.
What to look for in a mobile EFTPOS setup
- Total monthly cost, not just the rate. Add rental, device purchases and replacements to the percentage fee before you compare.
- Team access. Check that staff can take payments on their own phones under one business account, each with their own login.
- Multi-location reporting. If you run several sites, stalls or events, make sure every device and every transaction shows up in one dashboard.
- More than tap. Payment links and QR codes help when the customer is not in front of you. They are still card payments with card fees, so treat them as convenience tools rather than a way to save. PayID is the one option that runs on the New Payments Platform instead of card rails, with no card interchange.
- No lock-in. Seasonal and event-based businesses should avoid 12 to 36 month terms entirely.
Which mobile EFTPOS option is right for you?
If you run one busy counter all day, a rented or purchased terminal is still a sensible choice. If your payments happen at markets, events, job sites or across a team, your phone is the better mobile EFTPOS machine: nothing to rent, nothing to charge overnight, and every staff member is ready the moment they log in. Tradies can see how this works in practice in our guide to card payments on the job, and event operators in taking card payments across your whole event team. For the step-by-step on accepting your first payment, see how to accept card payments on your phone.
Pebl came from payments into software, so it is built as payment infrastructure for teams and multi-location businesses rather than as a single-device app. Set up your phone as a mobile EFTPOS machine with Pebl in about five minutes, with no rental and no lock-in.
