Answer
What signage do I need for a cash discount?
Signage is where most cash discounts succeed or quietly fail. The offer has to be visible before the payment decision is made, and both prices have to be the prices actually charged.
Most enquiries receive a response within 3 hours during business hours.
Short answer
What signage do I need for a cash discount?
At minimum a cash discount needs the card price and the cash price displayed together wherever customers see prices — at the entry, on the shelf edge, menu board or fuel console, beside the ATM, and at the register. Both figures must be accurate at the till: Australian pricing rules administered by the ACCC require advertised prices to be truthful and not misleading. Signage placed only at the register arrives after the payment decision and rarely changes behaviour. General information only, not financial or legal advice.
Definition
What a compliant cash-discount sign shows
A cash-discount sign shows two prices for the same item — the normal displayed price paid by anyone, and the lower price paid when the customer settles in notes and coins — with the condition stated plainly.
The important discipline is accuracy rather than wording. If the sign says a $10 item is $9.80 for cash, then $9.80 is what a cash customer must be charged, every time, on every shift. Pricing rules administered by the ACCC require advertised prices to be truthful and not misleading, and a discount applied inconsistently is precisely the kind of claim that fails that test.
Placement
The four positions that matter
Think of signage as a sequence rather than a single notice. Each position does a different job, and the earlier positions are the ones that change the payment method the customer arrives at the counter with.
| Position | What it says | Job it does |
|---|---|---|
| Entry door or window | Cash price available in store | Sets expectation before shopping starts |
| Shelf edge, menu or console | Card price and cash price together | Reaches the customer at the moment of choice |
| Beside the ATM | Withdraw here and pay the cash price | Links cash access to the offer |
| Register or counter | Cash price applied automatically | Confirms and prompts the request |
| Receipt or docket | Cash discount applied | Creates a record customers can check |
Wording
Language that stays accurate
Percentage wording works well where baskets vary — trades, restaurants, accommodation — while a flat cents-per-sale figure is clearer on small, frequent purchases such as a coffee, a pie or a single fuel top-up.
- State the condition: the lower price applies when paying with cash
- Show both figures, not a percentage alone, where items have a single price
- Avoid claiming a fee or surcharge is being avoided unless that is what happens
- Use the same discount figure on every sign and in the point-of-sale system
- Date and store a copy of your current pricing sign, so changes are traceable
Systems
Make the till agree with the sign
A sign the point-of-sale system cannot apply is a complaint waiting to happen. Configure the discount as a tender-based rule where your system supports it, so the cash price is applied by the system rather than remembered by the operator.
Where the system cannot do that, keep the rule simple enough to be applied by hand without error — a flat figure per sale, or a single percentage on the total, and nothing that requires arithmetic under pressure.
- Discount configured against the cash tender type where possible
- One rule for split payments — usually cash portion only, stated on the sign
- Staff briefed with a single sentence for the counter
- Receipts showing the discount so customers can verify it
- A weekly reconciliation of cash takings against ATM withdrawals on site
Cash access
Sign the ATM as part of the offer
The sign beside the machine is the one most venues forget, and it is the one that closes the loop. A customer who has just read the cash price needs to be told, at the machine, that this is where the cash comes from.
That only works if the machine is inside the venue and visible from the counter. Under free ATM placement the operator funds the terminal, the cash float and the servicing, so adding on-site cash access to support the offer costs the venue nothing and earns it a share of every withdrawal.
Review
How to tell whether the signage is working
Two numbers answer it. The share of takings arriving as cash should rise within a few weeks of the signs going up, and the withdrawal count on the on-site ATM should rise with it. If takings do not shift, the signage is too late in the journey — move it earlier.
Also listen at the counter. If staff are being asked "what's the cash price?" the signs are readable. If they are being asked "is there an ATM?" the machine needs better sightlines, not a bigger sign.
FAQs
Questions people ask
Displaying both is the clearest way to keep the offer accurate, because the customer can see exactly what each payment method costs. Whatever you display must be the price actually charged — Australian pricing rules administered by the ACCC require advertised prices to be truthful and not misleading.
You can, but it usually does not change behaviour. By the register the customer has already chosen how to pay. The signs that shift payment method sit at the entry, the shelf edge or menu, and beside the ATM.
Flat cents suit small, frequent purchases; a percentage suits higher-value or variable sales. Either way, price it from your real cost per card sale rather than a headline rate.
The pricing rules that matter are national — the Australian Consumer Law, administered by the ACCC alongside each state and territory fair trading regulator. Local considerations are usually about where a sign may be fixed, not what it may say.
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Keep reading
Related pages
- How do I pair a cash discount with an ATM?Sightlines, siting and the sentence staff say at the counter.
- How much cash float do I need for a cash discount?Change, banking and till planning for more cash trade.
- Discount for cash — every state and tradeThe silo hub: states, cities, regional towns and business types.
- Offering a discount for cashThe national explainer, with each Reserve Bank source linked in full.
- How do I set up a cash discount?The five setup steps, pricing and the rules that apply.
- Free ATM placementA fully managed machine at no cost, with a share of every withdrawal.
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