Businesses across Australia could save up to $12,000 each year with financial platform, Airwallex reducing the cost of online payments processing for domestic credit and debit cards by nearly 30%.

New and existing Australian business customers will see a 45 basis point reduction in what they pay to take online payments done by domestic credit and debit cards – down from 1.65% to 1.20% per payment plus 30 cents. This compares to other major providers charging between 1.75% and 2.2% plus 30 cents to process each online payment.

Airwallex head of strategy for Australia, Matt Sek said the price drop would save businesses thousands of dollars in transaction costs, particularly leading into Easter and Mother’s Day periods.

“We know the cost of doing business has only been going up, so cutting back payments costs will mean businesses can keep more of what they earn,” he said.

“These rates for our customers means cheaper products and services for their customers and more growth. We’ve made a commitment to invest in our Australian customers, and as they succeed, so do we.”

An average business doing $100,000 a month in domestic transactions in Australia would save $12,000 per year in transaction fees from the change, compared to other companies’ offerings at up to 2.2%. A smaller business doing $20,000 a month in transactions would save $2,400 per year and a business doing $50,000 a month in transactions would save $6,000 per year.  

Airwallex had doubled-down its investment into building leading online payments infrastructure in Australia and abroad, which meant it could lower its transaction fees, according to Sek.

“We’ve been investing in our online payments infrastructure as we grow which means we can pass on the cost savings by dropping our prices for our merchant customers,” he said.

“We’re a modern payments platform built from the ground up for modern businesses of any size – which means we don’t have all the baggage of banks or other legacy payment platforms. In recent weeks we’ve seen other payments businesses announce increases in transaction costs, but at Airwallex we’re taking a different approach.

“Not only does our online payment gateway make it easier to accept domestic and international payments for businesses, but our fee change will make it even cheaper too.”