The Reserve Bank has reaffirmed its support for merchant surcharging as a way of signalling to consumers that some payment methods are more expensive than others.With the Government's new rules on excessive surcharging having taken effect at the start of the month, the head of the RBA's payments policy department, Tony Richards, told delegates at the Annual Credit Law Conference that the right to surcharge was a mechanism for putting downward pressure on merchant fees."By helping to hold down payment costs, the right to surcharge helps to hold down the price of goods and services charged to all consumers," Richards said.According to RBA data, merchant service fees in the June quarter ranged from an average of 0.14 per cent of the transaction value of Eftpos payments to around two per cent of the transaction value of Diners Club payments.For MasterCard and Visa transactions, the average merchant cost was 0.55 per cent of the transaction value of a debit card transaction and 0.81 per cent of the value of a credit card transaction.The average merchant fee on an American Express transaction was 1.66 per cent of the value.These averages mask significant variations. Visa and MasterCard transactions have merchant fees of as much as two per cent and American Express as much as three per cent.Richards said that since the "no-surcharge" rule imposed by card schemes was scrapped in 2003 there had been a "significant fall" in payment costs.He said there was no evidence that surcharging was excessive, except in a few notable cases."The [RBA] estimates that in 2013 merchants in aggregate recouped approximately one-quarter of the merchant service fees they paid when accepting card transactions."Surcharges are paid on only about four per cent of card transactions.