Credit Card Surchage - Are you changing your method of payment?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Credit Card Surchage - Are you changing your method of payment?

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#3399843 4-Aug-2025 11:26

wellygary:

tanivula:

Heard the bnz ad on the or ol wireless the other day about payap

Looks interesting, QR code scanning, low fees & open banking connections from my initial look.

"Step 4

You’ll both receive confirmation when the transaction has been completed. The funds are settled to your account the next morning."

I think this could be its undoing, retailers don't get the money till overnight,

Presumably its deducted as an "unavailable balance" from the customers as soon as the transaction occur thou - otherwise its a gapping hole for abuse

Pretty sure retailers don't get the money going through their EFTPOS terminals until they settle overnight as well.

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#3399845 4-Aug-2025 11:29

wellygary:

tanivula:

Heard the bnz ad on the or ol wireless the other day about payap

Looks interesting, QR code scanning, low fees & open banking connections from my initial look.

"Step 4

You’ll both receive confirmation when the transaction has been completed. The funds are settled to your account the next morning."

I think this could be its undoing, retailers don't get the money till overnight,

Presumably its deducted as an "unavailable balance" from the customers as soon as the transaction occur thou - otherwise its a gapping hole for abuse

Which is basically similar to EFTpos (think it might depend on network though?), for instance: "Funds from trading are typically credited to your business account late at night. [...] Settlement typically takes place between 10:15 PM and 11:55 PM." https://support.eftpos.co.nz/settlement

Oblivian

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#3399850 4-Aug-2025 11:58

I was looking for a way for stall holder I know to use QR for payments recently.

Turns out there isn't a way other than saving your bank acct number as a text field for them to get into clipboard and paste to their app for ensuring it isn't wrong.

Bnz touted open banking api last year, so this might be ontop of that and likely to fill out thier acct details and just bridge the gap for online EFTPOS to complete similar to what Pbtech etc offer now

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#3399861 4-Aug-2025 13:02

Oblivian:

I was looking for a way for stall holder I know to use QR for payments recently.

Turns out there isn't a way other than saving your bank acct number as a text field for them to get into clipboard and paste to their app for ensuring it isn't wrong.

Bnz touted open banking api last year, so this might be ontop of that and likely to fill out thier acct details and just bridge the gap for online EFTPOS to complete similar to what Pbtech etc offer now

If you have a registered business, Emerge supports this via EmergePay

I've used it a few times and worked well, you can either generate specific links or give the user a generic link where they enter the amount - 1.5% transaction fees which is lower than what we were paying via Stripe for the same thing.

Any comments made are my personal views and does not represent those of my employer

eracode

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#3413640 11-Sep-2025 08:54

As suspected by earlier posters here, this story in NZH today says shoppers who pay by Eftpos will subsidise contactless card users under the proposed surcharge ban.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

wellygary

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#3413644 11-Sep-2025 09:02

eracode:

As suspected by earlier posters here, this story in NZH today says shoppers who pay by Eftpos will subsidise contactless card users under surcharge ban.

And Shoppers who shop in summer months subsidise those in Winter months when the heating needs to be on,

And Shoppers who come in and quickly buy something expensive subsidise those who consult with the shop assistants and only buy something of low value,

There are lots of ways that business costs can be sliced and diced,

But the counterfactual would be to argue that the largest retailers in the country (supermarkets/bulk retailers/fastfood) who currently do not surcharge their customers should start doing so, so those paying by EFTPOS can have a few cents off their bill??

if you've been in a country where they've banned surcharges, NZ's current situation of 2% stickers, postits and popups seems crazy.....

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#3413658 11-Sep-2025 09:51

TBH I would rather just see places stop taking visa and mastercard in store rather than go to bundling the surcharge into the products pricing.

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wellygary

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#3413663 11-Sep-2025 10:11

richms:

TBH I would rather just see places stop taking visa and mastercard in store rather than go to bundling the surcharge into the products pricing.

Simply ain't gonna happen,

and with the Banks just sweating the EFTPOS infrastructure with no products, , Tap-to-pay has run in and eaten their lunches,,,

Tell someone under 20 that they can't pay with their phone.....

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#3413675 11-Sep-2025 11:21

wellygary:

Tell someone under 20 that they can't pay with their phone.....

I'm well over 20 and I don't carry my cards/wallet unless I'm going to somewhere (like the hairdresser) where I know they don't have paywave. If a store I've gone into casually doesn't have paywave, I'm just going to go elsewhere.

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#3413680 11-Sep-2025 11:53

Anyone who opposes the removal of surcharges is living in the past.

I have said it multiple times, but businesses that separate out their cost of accepting payments that actually drive their business shouldn't be complaining about the small amount that they have to pay for their payment processing. It's far less than the cost of advertising, marketing or even the stock they purchase to on-sell.

They don't separate out the cost of power per transaction and charge for that, neither do they separate out the cost of rent, wages or other factors and charge those separately.

The cost of doing business is bundled into the price of goods and that's how it should be.

The world has moved on from cash (despite there being some hold-outs) and cheques went away as they had reached the end of their natural life. Surcharges should have gone a long time ago and I applaud the removal of them.
As has been said - a lot of people do not carry physical cards and many (particularly those that have revolving mortgages) use credit cards for daily expenses, many of which are simply digital representations in a mobile wallet. To penalise people for using their own money to provide a retailer with a means to make their own money is ludicrous.

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#3413833 11-Sep-2025 16:07

With surcharges getting banned, here’s a clean workaround for retailers:

Bundle card processing fees into shelf prices, then offer a 1% discount for preferred payment methods like EFTPOS. It’s not a surcharge—it’s a reward for helping keep costs down.

Example:

“Groceries: $100.00 Pay with EFTPOS and get 1% off — just $99.00”

Simple, and fair. The business keeps most of the savings, the customer gets a slice, and Visa doesn’t eat your margin. Call it a “Local Payment Bonus” or “Cashflow-Friendly Discount” if you want to soften the optics. Kiwis love rewards. Like turning eftpos system into a reward card scheme?

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#3413845 11-Sep-2025 17:04

cruxis:

With surcharges getting banned, here’s a clean workaround for retailers:

Bundle card processing fees into shelf prices, then offer a 1% discount for preferred payment methods like EFTPOS. It’s not a surcharge—it’s a reward for helping keep costs down.

Example:

“Groceries: $100.00 Pay with EFTPOS and get 1% off — just $99.00”

Simple, and fair. The business keeps most of the savings, the customer gets a slice, and Visa doesn’t eat your margin. Call it a “Local Payment Bonus” or “Cashflow-Friendly Discount” if you want to soften the optics. Kiwis love rewards. Like turning eftpos system into a reward card scheme?

I would imagine the law will ban this type of nonsense. It's semantics to try and avoid the point of the law.

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#3413847 11-Sep-2025 17:06

Handsomedan:

Anyone who opposes the removal of surcharges is living in the past.

I have said it multiple times, but businesses that separate out their cost of accepting payments that actually drive their business shouldn't be complaining about the small amount that they have to pay for their payment processing. It's far less than the cost of advertising, marketing or even the stock they purchase to on-sell.

They don't separate out the cost of power per transaction and charge for that, neither do they separate out the cost of rent, wages or other factors and charge those separately.

The cost of doing business is bundled into the price of goods and that's how it should be.

The world has moved on from cash (despite there being some hold-outs) and cheques went away as they had reached the end of their natural life. Surcharges should have gone a long time ago and I applaud the removal of them.
As has been said - a lot of people do not carry physical cards and many (particularly those that have revolving mortgages) use credit cards for daily expenses, many of which are simply digital representations in a mobile wallet. To penalise people for using their own money to provide a retailer with a means to make their own money is ludicrous.

The way this is treated like it's some sort of unsolvable problem is so strange. In a large part of the world it's entirely normal to pay however you like and it's the same price.

I pay for everything in Dubai with my phone or watch. I rarely take my wallet out anymore.

Handsomedan

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#3413862 11-Sep-2025 17:39

Handle9:

Handsomedan:

Anyone who opposes the removal of surcharges is living in the past.

I have said it multiple times, but businesses that separate out their cost of accepting payments that actually drive their business shouldn't be complaining about the small amount that they have to pay for their payment processing. It's far less than the cost of advertising, marketing or even the stock they purchase to on-sell.

They don't separate out the cost of power per transaction and charge for that, neither do they separate out the cost of rent, wages or other factors and charge those separately.

The cost of doing business is bundled into the price of goods and that's how it should be.

The world has moved on from cash (despite there being some hold-outs) and cheques went away as they had reached the end of their natural life. Surcharges should have gone a long time ago and I applaud the removal of them.
As has been said - a lot of people do not carry physical cards and many (particularly those that have revolving mortgages) use credit cards for daily expenses, many of which are simply digital representations in a mobile wallet. To penalise people for using their own money to provide a retailer with a means to make their own money is ludicrous.

The way this is treated like it's some sort of unsolvable problem is so strange. In a large part of the world it's entirely normal to pay however you like and it's the same price.

I pay for everything in Dubai with my phone or watch. I rarely take my wallet out anymore.

As it should be. We're not in the third world yet...

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gzt

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#3413865 11-Sep-2025 17:43

NZHerald: "Shoppers who pay by Eftpos will subsidise contactless card users under surcharge ban, officials warned Government"

Is the government making the no surcharge rule just for the contactless aspect or does the no-surcharge rule apply to the entire transaction including the purely credit card related percentage fee?

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