What is a ‘regular payment Arrangement’?
Regular Payment Arrangements can be either a recurring payment or an instalment payment. A Regular Payment Arrangement is an agreement between you (the cardholder) and a merchant in which you authorise the merchant to bill your card account at regular intervals (e.g. monthly or quarterly) or at intervals as agreed by you. The amount may differ or be the same for each transaction.
An Instalment Payment represents an agreement between (the cardholder) and a merchant in which you preauthorise the merchant to bill your card account with a fixed amount at predetermined intervals for a predetermined time.
Examples:
Recurring Transaction: You may ask your local gymnasium to charge your monthly gym membership fee to your credit card each month.
Instalment Payment: You may have purchased a new television from your local appliance store and are being billed by the merchant for a fixed amount in multiple periods until a defined date.
What are the benefits of Regular Payment Arrangements?
There are many benefits for cardholders who set up regular payments including:
- Ensures timely payments to the merchant
- Saves you time as the payment is processed automatically
- Saves you money as you do not have to pay for cheques, money transfers or postage, nor will you be liable for late fees.
What are my responsibilities with Regular Payment Arrangements?
Regular Payment Arrangements are an agreement between you (the cardholder) and the merchant. You should keep a record of all Regular Payment Arrangements you have established with merchants and store in a safe place. A template for recording your Regular Payment Arrangements is available from the Australian Payments Clearing Association website. Click here and use the template provided to record all your regular payments.
You are responsible for notifying the merchant when your account details change, including a change in card number and/or change of card expiry date. Either contact your merchant by phone, mail or internet and follow their instructions; or click here to generate a Change in Account Details letter to your merchant. We recommend you keep a copy or a record of any Change in Account Details letter sent to your merchant and your earlier Regular Payment Arrangements. This correspondence will be required if your merchant does not comply with your request in a timely manner and you decide to dispute any incorrectly charged regular payments.
How do I cancel a Regular Payment Arrangement?
You must contact your merchant and request they cancel your Regular Payment Arrangement. Be aware that you may be required to provide alternative payment details for the goods and/or services being provided.
If after a reasonable time, your merchant fails to cancel your Regular Payment Arrangement you may contact your financial institution for assistance.
Note that closing your scheme card account does not automatically cancel your Regular Payment Arrangements on that scheme card account. You must contact the merchant to either cancel the Regular Payment Arrangement or provide replacement cards details for future payments.
What if my card number and/or expiry date changes?
If you have provided a merchant with your card number for a Regular Payment Arrangement and your card number and/or expiry date changes then you must contact the merchant to advise them of the new card details. Failure to advise the merchant of these changes could result in the cancel of goods and/or services (e.g. cancellation of your car insurance policy).
More Information
- Use our Switching form to generate letters to change your regular payment details
- View our sample spreadsheet to record your regular payments (Excel spreadsheet)
Questions
If you have any questions, please contact us 
