Why PayID Is the Best Donation Method for Australian Charities

The Silent Cost of Card Payments in the Charity Sector

Every time a donor taps their card at your collection point, swipes online, or pays by Visa, a small but real portion of their gift doesn't reach your cause. Merchant card fees — typically between 1% and 2% on card payments — are a cost that most Australian charities have quietly absorbed, or until recently, passed on to donors as a surcharge.

That's about to change. From 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will ban surcharges on eftpos, Visa, and Mastercard payments as part of its 2026 Payments System Review. For charities that have been passing these costs on to donors, it means card fees will now have to come out of the donation itself.

On a $100 gift, that could mean $1.50–$2.00 going to payment infrastructure rather than to the cause your donors believe in. Multiply that across hundreds or thousands of transactions each year, and the impact is significant.

There's one payment method that sidesteps this entirely: PayID.

What Is PayID, and Why Does It Matter for Nonprofits?

PayID is Australia's account-to-account payment method, built on the New Payments Platform (NPP) — a real-time payments infrastructure that sits entirely outside card networks. When a donor pays via PayID, they're making a bank-to-bank transfer from their account directly to yours. No Visa. No Mastercard. No eftpos. No interchange fee. Australian Payments Plus notes that PayID gives donors confidence they're paying the right account — they see your organisation's verified name before confirming, which builds the kind of trust that matters when asking people to give.

For charities, that distinction matters enormously. It means:

• No card fees taken from the donation — 100% of the payment arrives in your account
• Instant settlement — funds appear in real time, unlike card payments which often batch overnight or take days to clear
• Donor confidence — the donor sees your organisation's verified name before they confirm
• No physical terminal required — donors pay directly from their mobile banking app using your PayID (a phone number, email address, or ABN)

PayID is supported by all major Australian banks, which means most of your donors already have access to it right now through their existing banking app — no new accounts or apps required. For a broader look at how account-to-account payments work alongside card-based methods, see our guide to account-to-account and contactless payments with Pebl.

But What About QR Codes and Payment Links?

There's often confusion here, so it's worth being clear: QR codes and payment links are card-based transactions. When a donor scans a QR code or clicks a payment link and pays by Visa or Mastercard, the interchange fee still applies. These are excellent tools for accessibility and convenience — they remove friction, work beautifully on mobile, and are ideal for online campaigns, event pages, and social media giving. But they are operational tools, not fee-avoidance tools.

PayID is unique in that it genuinely bypasses card rails. If reducing the cost per donation is a priority for your organisation, PayID is the only payment method in Australia that achieves this at scale.

A Multi-Method Strategy for Modern Charities

The smartest charities in Australia aren't choosing between payment methods — they're offering all of them, and being deliberate about when each one is best used. For a full breakdown of every payment option available to Australian charities, including the trade-offs between each, see our guide to cashless fundraising for Australian charities.

For in-person fundraising at events: Tap to Pay on a smartphone or a compact card reader allows supporters to give quickly and conveniently during face-to-face moments. Card fees apply, but the frictionless experience captures giving moments that would otherwise be missed entirely.

For online campaigns, social media, and email: Payment links and QR codes work brilliantly. Place them in donor emails, embed them in campaign pages, or include them in Instagram Stories and Facebook posts. Supporters who arrive on their phone can complete a gift in under 30 seconds.

For regular giving, major donors, and fee-conscious donors: PayID is the optimal method. Share your PayID (an email address or phone number linked to your bank account) with regular givers, include it on your donation receipts, and feature it prominently on your website. Donors who care deeply about where their money goes will appreciate that 100% of their payment reaches your cause.

For remote and regional fundraising: PayID and QR codes remove the need for physical infrastructure. Any volunteer with a smartphone can accept donations anywhere there's mobile coverage — no card terminal needed.

The Practical Case: What Charities Stand to Save

Consider a charity raising $200,000 per year in card-based donations. At an average card fee of 1.5%, that's $3,000 per year in interchange costs absorbed by the organisation or previously passed to donors as a surcharge. If even 30% of those donors switched to PayID giving, the charity could redirect approximately $900 annually back into programs — with no change to the donation amount and minimal change to donor behaviour.

For larger organisations processing millions in annual donations, the savings compound significantly.

And critically, in a landscape where fewer Australians are donating at all — the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that the proportion of Australians who give to charity fell from 65% in 2021 to 58% in 2024 — the ability to tell donors that 100% of their gift reaches your cause is a meaningful and differentiated message. In a world of growing donor scepticism, transparency about how donations are handled builds the kind of trust that drives recurring giving.

Preparing for October 2026 Now

With the RBA surcharge ban less than five months away, charities that currently rely on passing card fees to donors need a transition plan. There are broadly two options: absorb the card fees as an operational cost (which reduces program funding), or shift a meaningful proportion of donations to PayID (which eliminates the cost altogether).

Most organisations will benefit from doing both — absorbing fees on smaller, casual transactions where adding friction would reduce the conversion rate, while actively encouraging PayID for regular donors, corporate contributions, and larger one-off gifts where fee amounts are material.

The good news is that this transition doesn't require new hardware, new payment providers, or complex integrations. If you already have an account with a PayID-enabled bank (which most Australian charities do), you can begin accepting PayID donations today.

How Pebl Collect Makes This Simple

Pebl Collect is purpose-built payment infrastructure for Australian charities and nonprofits. It enables organisations to accept Tap to Pay, QR codes, payment links, and PayID from a single platform — without the complexity of managing multiple payment providers or reconciling separate systems.

Fundraising teams and volunteers can manage giving across multiple events, locations, or campaigns from one account, with real-time visibility into how much has been collected and through which payment channel. There's no expensive hardware to purchase, no long-term contracts, and no technical setup required.

For charities preparing for the post-surcharge landscape, Pebl Collect gives you the infrastructure to offer donors every payment option they need — and to steer fee-sensitive giving toward PayID, where every dollar donated is a dollar received.

Ready to start accepting PayID donations alongside all your other payment methods? Learn more about Pebl Collect — mobile payment infrastructure built for Australian charities.