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# Home loan fees jump 17 per cent as banks collect $15 billion
- URL: https://www.bushletter.com/australian-bank-fees-hit-15-billion-households-pay-more/
- Published: 2026-08-19T23:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T22:59:59.000Z
- Description: Australian banks collected roughly $15 billion in fee revenue in the year to June 2025, a 3 per cent lift on the prior year, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest annual survey of bank charges. On the big four's combined balance sheets, that number barely registers.
- Author: Editor
- Tags: Banking, Australia, consumer, Finance

![Vikram Singh](https://res.cloudinary.com/dz77sb7j1/image/upload/v1774262610/bushletter/authors/vikram-singh.png)

By **Vikram Singh** · 2026-08-04

TLDR

Australian banks collected roughly $15 billion in fee revenue in the year to June 2025, a 3 per cent rise on the prior year. Households bore the sharpest increase at 7 per cent, led by housing loan and credit card fees. Credit cards alone account for about 40 per cent of every fee dollar households hand to their banks.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01Total bank fee revenue rose 3 per cent to roughly $15 billion in the year to June 2025.

02Housing loan fees surged 17 per cent, the fastest-growing cost category for Australian households.

03Credit cards account for around 40 per cent of all fees Australian households pay their banks.

04Large businesses carry the heaviest load, paying around 40 per cent of all bank fee revenue.

05Fees represent only about 4 per cent of banks' total revenue despite costing households billions annually.

## Where the money lands

Australian banks collected roughly $15 billion in fee revenue in the year to June 2025, a 3 per cent lift on the prior year, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest annual survey of bank charges.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) On the big four's combined balance sheets, that number barely registers. Fees accounted for around 4 per cent of banks' total revenue in 2024-25.[\[2\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/pdf/bulletin-2026-05.pdf?ref=bushletter.com) For the people paying them, though, the direction of travel matters more than the share.

The load is not spread evenly. Large businesses absorbed roughly 40 per cent of all fee revenue, while households and medium-sized businesses each contributed around 25 per cent, and small businesses around 10 per cent.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) Households sit at a smaller slice of the total, but their fees grew faster than any other segment in the most recent year.

## The household bill is accelerating

Fee revenue from households grew by 7 per cent in the year to June 2025, led by a 17 per cent rise in fees on housing loans and a 10 per cent rise in credit card fees.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) The prior year offers some context: in the year to June 2024, households paid $3,711 million in total bank fees against an institutional total of $10,963 million, bringing the aggregate to $14,674 million.[\[3\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2025/jan/pdf/bulletin-2025-01.pdf?ref=bushletter.com) A 7 per cent growth rate on that base means the lived cost is moving meaningfully upward.

Personal loan fees moved in the opposite direction, falling 19 per cent.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) That likely reflects a shift in product mix, with borrowers migrating toward buy-now-pay-later arrangements and other credit forms that sit outside the APRA reporting perimeter. It does not offset the pressure in housing and cards.

## Credit cards: the dominant fee engine

The single biggest line item in the household fee bill is not a mortgage discharge fee or an ATM surcharge. Credit cards were the largest source of bank fees for households, comprising around 40 per cent of all household bank fees in the year to June 2025.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) Annual card fees, late payment charges and foreign transaction fees each look small in isolation, but at a population scale they add up fast.

The merchant side of the card equation adds another layer. Ellis Connolly, Head of Payments Policy at the RBA, said debit cards cost merchants around 0.4 per cent per transaction, credit cards around 0.8 per cent and charge cards around 1.3 per cent.[\[4\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2024/sp-so-2024-06-18.html?ref=bushletter.com) Those merchant costs feed back into retail prices, making card fees a cost-of-living mechanism as much as a banking one.

Ban on debit and credit card surcharges | The Business | ABC NEWS

## What businesses actually pay

Institutional fee revenue grew by only 1 per cent over the year to June 2025, well behind the household pace.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) Business loans drove the movement within that segment, with a 4 per cent rise in fees that account for just over half of all institutional fee revenue and more than one-third of total bank fee revenue across the whole survey.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) Loan establishment fees, line fees and facility charges are the machinery here, and they scale with the size and complexity of the borrowing.

Merchant service fees declined slightly over the year to June 2025, continuing a longer drift that began between 2019 and 2023 when several banks sold their merchant services businesses to entities outside the APRA reporting framework.[\[1\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com) The underlying payment activity has not disappeared; the revenue has simply moved off the regulated balance sheet, making the published fee totals a partial picture of what businesses actually pay for payment processing.

## Where fees are structural and where they can be avoided

The RBA has collected annual fee data from authorised deposit-taking institutions since 1997, sorting charges into four buckets: account servicing fees including card annual fees and loan establishment charges; transaction fees for ATM withdrawals, international payments and loan drawdowns; merchant fees; and exception fees such as break costs and dishonour charges.[\[3\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2025/jan/pdf/bulletin-2025-01.pdf?ref=bushletter.com) Different fee types sit at very different points on the avoidability spectrum.

Account servicing and card annual fees are the most avoidable. Basic deposit accounts with no monthly fee are available from most major and challenger banks, and customers willing to switch can eliminate that cost entirely. Loan establishment fees are harder to sidestep and tend to scale with the property market, which explains why the 17 per cent jump in housing loan fees tracks the renewed volume of mortgage activity.

ASIC has been direct about the gap between available products and where customers actually sit. Danielle Press, then a Commissioner at ASIC, said: "It's unacceptable that we have found many consumers continuing to experience harm through transaction account fees, when banks know these people could be in low-fee accounts."[\[5\]](https://www.asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2023-releases/23-183mr-asic-acts-to-ensure-better-banking-outcomes-for-indigenous-consumers/?ref=bushletter.com) That finding came from work on banking outcomes for Indigenous consumers, but the underlying problem of banks holding customers in higher-fee products when lower-cost alternatives exist is not confined to any one demographic.

## What the RBA data shows for your hip pocket

The RBA's interest in fee data is not academic. Fee income flows directly into bank margins, and the distribution of that income across customer types affects competition and consumer behaviour at scale. At 4 per cent of total bank revenue, fees are not where the sector earns its keep; net interest income does that work. But the directional signal matters.[\[2\]](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/pdf/bulletin-2026-05.pdf?ref=bushletter.com)

The household fee acceleration, 7 per cent growth versus 1 per cent for institutional customers, is the number worth acting on. A household carrying a rewards credit card, a variable-rate mortgage and a transaction account with a monthly fee sits across all three of the fastest-growing fee categories at once. Switching costs in banking are real but not prohibitive, and the RBA data shows the total household fee bill for the year to June 2025 came to roughly $3,971 million.

This article contains analysis and commentary on market conditions. It does not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified adviser before making financial decisions.

SOURCES & CITATIONS

1. [Bank Fees in Australia, RBA Bulletin, May 2026](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/bank-fees-in-australia.html?ref=bushletter.com)
2. [Bank Fees in Australia, RBA Bulletin PDF, May 2026](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2026/may/pdf/bulletin-2026-05.pdf?ref=bushletter.com)
3. [Bank Fees in Australia, RBA Bulletin, January 2025](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2025/jan/pdf/bulletin-2025-01.pdf?ref=bushletter.com)
4. [Ellis Connolly, RBA, Speech on Payments Policy, June 2024](https://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2024/sp-so-2024-06-18.html?ref=bushletter.com)
5. [ASIC, Better banking outcomes for Indigenous consumers, 2023](https://www.asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2023-releases/23-183mr-asic-acts-to-ensure-better-banking-outcomes-for-indigenous-consumers/?ref=bushletter.com)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How much did Australian households pay in bank fees in the year to June 2024?

Households paid $3,711 million in bank fees in the year to June 2024, out of a total fee pool of $14,674 million across all customer types, according to RBA data.

What is the biggest single source of bank fees for Australian households?

Credit cards, which accounted for around 40 per cent of all household bank fees in the year to June 2025.

Why did merchant service fees paid to banks decline?

Several banks sold their merchant services businesses between 2019 and 2023 to entities that do not report fee income to APRA, shifting that revenue off the regulated balance sheet without the underlying payment activity disappearing.

Are there bank accounts available that charge no monthly fees?

Yes. Basic deposit accounts with no monthly fee are available from most major and challenger banks in Australia. ASIC has previously found that many customers remain in higher-fee accounts when lower-cost alternatives exist.

![Vikram Singh](https://res.cloudinary.com/dz77sb7j1/image/upload/v1774262610/bushletter/authors/vikram-singh.png)

[Vikram Singh](https://bushletter.com/author/vikram-singh/?ref=bushletter.com)

Vikram Singh writes about banking. He follows where money actually moves, from the strategy set in head office to what changes on a customer's phone.