Hello Clever urges businesses to add PayID options

Hello Clever has urged Australian businesses to add PayID as a payment option alongside cards as the ban on card surcharges takes effect.

It argues that while merchants will no longer be able to list card surcharges separately, the cost of accepting card payments will remain. That leaves businesses with a choice: absorb those costs or build them into shelf prices.

At the centre of its case is PayID, a payment method linked to a phone number or email address through a customer's banking app. Businesses can use PayID to receive payments directly into their accounts within seconds, without relying on card networks.

Card payments still dominate consumer spending in Australia, with cash accounting for less than 8 per cent and cards for more than 90 per cent, according to Hello Clever. The fintech contends that PayID, while familiar to many consumers for person-to-person transfers, remains underused in business payments.

Caroline Tran, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hello Clever, said the change in surcharge rules should prompt a broader review of payment costs.

"Cash is now under 8 per cent of what Australians spend. Cards make up more than 90 per cent. But a lot has changed since cards overtook cash, and there are now new ways to get paid," Tran said.

She said the gap in acceptance costs between cards and PayID could be significant for merchants with repeat trade.

"The average card fee is around 1.5 per cent. With PayID, it's around 0.5 per cent," Tran said.

Cost pressure

The push comes as businesses assess how to respond to the surcharge ban amid higher borrowing costs and pressure on household budgets. For merchants, payment acceptance fees have long been a routine operating expense, but one that consumers often noticed only when a separate card surcharge appeared at the till or online checkout.

Hello Clever is not arguing that cards should be removed. Instead, it wants businesses to give customers another digital option, particularly where the same customers return regularly.

"For a one-off purchase, I'll admit PayID is more steps than tapping a card. For a repeat customer, it really isn't," Tran said. "Say you run a cafe. You could encourage your daily regulars to pay for their morning coffee with PayID, with a discount or other reward for doing it. On a single flat white the saving is nothing. Across a year of regulars, it adds up, and that's money you can hand back to the customer to keep them using it."

That points to a broader question for retailers and service providers: can lower-cost account-to-account payment methods gain ground in everyday commerce when contactless card and mobile wallet payments are already entrenched?

Merchant choices

Tran said businesses still need to accept cards, especially in online retail and wherever customers expect fast, familiar checkout options.

"I'm not saying drop cards. That's a fast way to lose customers, and any online retailer still needs a card strategy," she said. "Airlines have offered PayID for years alongside plenty of other payment methods. PayID is just the cheapest. Add it as an option, use the savings to make it worth your customer's while, and see what happens."

Hello Clever also argues that merchants have more influence over payment behaviour than many assume. It points to the rapid spread of contactless payments in Australia as evidence that customer habits can change quickly when large retailers normalise a different checkout experience.

"Businesses think the payments industry sets the terms. It's actually the other way around. I work in this industry, and we build what merchants ask us for. If a third of Australian businesses put PayID at the checkout tomorrow, the industry would fall over itself to make that experience slicker," Tran said.

Hello Clever was founded in 2021 by Tran and Gavin Nguyen. It builds payment infrastructure for businesses and connects merchants and platforms to local payment rails for real-time settlement and transaction tracking.

Tran said the removal of visible surcharges should prompt businesses to examine the true cost of getting paid.

"The payments conversation has got into the weeds, and that suits the industry fine. Dull and complicated is how things stay exactly as they are," Tran said. "Treat October as the moment you stop accepting whatever your bank or provider tells you. Pull your last three merchant statements and work out what you're actually paying to get paid. Worst case, you'll finally know."