With Christmas and the year’s end there’s always a swag of reports about festive season spending. In a new report from EFTPOS payments provider Tyro, Australians are forecast to make 1.5 billion transactions between now and the end of the January post-Christmas sales – peaking at an estimated 85,000 transactions per minute - and amounting to a six week $100 billion spending spree.

New bans on large businesses charging consumers excessive payment surcharges have now come into effect, prompting a reminder from the ACCC that the new law limits the amount  large business can charge customers for use of payment methods such as most credit and debit cards.

National Australia Bank has launched a new product that allows customers to keep using their Visa accounts even if their debit or credit card has been stolen or lost.