Kiwi bank to charge fee for international transactions, including $NZ

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Kiwi bank to charge fee for international transactions, including $NZ

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#3420676 2-Oct-2025 14:06

openmedia:

Payments to Amex always seem to take longer so allow a couple of days before the bill is due.

I always pay on the due date and I note that even if the paymnts are processed 2-3 days late they still appear on the statement the correct day so they seem to know when they receive the transfer but have poorly time batch systems which holds up the processing of said payment. I've also noticed they seem to have a grace period of 1-2 days. YMMV.

Good that NZ banks process CC payments quickly nowdays -- I remember in the old days it was the same as the Amex situation so was a nice benefit to have CC and bank accounts at the same bank for instant transfers.

jen1001

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#3420679 2-Oct-2025 14:12

johno1234:

That might be an AMEX issue? Wise topups also take a while. Anyone know how long it takes to get money from one NZ bank to another NZ credit card?

Since KB ditched AirNZ I’m thinking of switching to ANZ’s Airpoints card but don’t want to change the rest.

Could be Wise, it takes 1 day for funds transferred from my ASB cheque acct to a Westpac credit card.

richms

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#3420680 2-Oct-2025 14:13

Gem visa is another one that is slow to get payments onto the card. Often I was wanting to use the 6 months interest free on something but didn't have enough on the card to do it, and the delay is absurd.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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#3420699 2-Oct-2025 16:07

I wonder if buying something from Apple would be considered an international payment, as it is charged for in NZD but as far as I an aware it is all shipped from and managed overseas.

richms

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#3420701 2-Oct-2025 16:11

I wonder if other banks will try this crap on since it is so hard to apply for credit now, you are a damn fool if you close any credit facility with anybody now.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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#3420704 2-Oct-2025 16:17

Yes trying to get a credit card is nearly impossible if you are self employed and haven’t had this years accounts completed by your accountant. Think it is more difficult that getting a mortgage

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wellygary

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#3420705 2-Oct-2025 16:21

mattwnz:

I wonder if buying something from Apple would be considered an international payment, as it is charged for in NZD but as far as I an aware it is all shipped from and managed overseas.

Given what KB have said, I would guess so,

Even though Apple sales will book the sale to its NZ subsidiary, its highly likely that all the transactional lifting will be done via an offshore entity, (OZ , Singapore, or even somewhere in Europe) -

nztim

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#3420706 2-Oct-2025 16:23

This is a RORT!

This is going to affect Apple/Jetstar/Prime Video among others

the whole point of Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) is that the merchant pays for this!

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eracode

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#3420817 2-Oct-2025 21:11

Having read all this, I’m wondering about airline ticket purchases.

Was recently buying Emirates tickets. Auckland to UK is priced in NZD. Munich to Auckland is priced in EUR, if looked at separately. But on a ‘multi-city’ ticket, it’s all priced in NZD. There’s clearly some FX conversion going on somewhere.

Just checked my CC transaction details for the multi-city purchase and there’s no ‘FX transaction fee’ thing showing - I forget exactly what it’s called. I wonder if this would be caught by KB’s little scheme.

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wellygary

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#3420830 2-Oct-2025 23:45

eracode:

Having read all this, I’m wondering about airline ticket purchases.

Was recently buying Emirates tickets. Auckland to UK is priced in NZD. Munich to Auckland is priced in EUR, if looked at separately. But on a ‘multi-city’ ticket, it’s all priced in NZD. There’s clearly some FX conversion going on somewhere.

Just checked my CC transaction details for the multi-city purchase and there’s no ‘FX transaction fee’ thing showing - I forget exactly what it’s called. I wonder if this would be caught by KB’s little scheme.

According to the limited info KB have provided, if it’s billed out of Auckland you’ll be OK… but if it’s billed from Emirates corporate out of the UAE or the Sydney office then you will get caught by the 1.85% fee

eracode

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#3420831 3-Oct-2025 03:08

wellygary

According to the limited info KB have provided, if it’s billed out of Auckland you’ll be OK… but if it’s billed from Emirates corporate out of the UAE or the Sydney office then you will get caught by the 1.85% fee

Not sure how to tell how and where it’s being billed when you’re on their website making the purchase. The site shows as ‘emirates,com/nz’ but FWIW it does show NZ contact details.

It’s possible customers on the other examples of ‘offshore sites selling in NZD’ that you mentioned earlier, may not know the new fee is being charged until they see it on their CC statement.

Fortunately I’m not a KB customer - but the words thin, end and wedge come to mind.

The more you think about this, the bigger this move by KB appears to be. It will be very interesting to see how it unfolds and whether it’s sustainable.

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wellygary

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#3420851 3-Oct-2025 08:46

eracode:

It’s possible the customer on the other examples of ‘offshore sites selling in NZD’ that you mentioned earlier, may not know the new fee is being charged until they see it on their CC statement.

Fortunately I’m not a KB customer - but the words thin, end and wedge come to mind.

The more you think about this, the bigger this move by KB appears to be. It will be very interesting to see how it unfolds and whether it’s sustainable.

It’s the lack of transparency that is likely to be the big problem for KB customers, there are limited ways for a customer to determine whether a site billing will be “international” … and international sites won’t likely tell customer that KB is charging this fee (the O/S biller may not even know)

KB customers would have a reasonable case to go to a nz regulated/ banking ombudsman and claim this fee is unreasonable as both the currency and seller are in Nz… but they then find that they are being be billed via an international sister company….and hitwith the fee…..

dafman

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#3420852 3-Oct-2025 08:51

richms:

KiwiSurfer:

No instant transfers -- it takes anywhere between 1-3 days to transfer from my Kiwibank account to my Amex which can be annoying if I am making a big purchase and need to ensure I have enough credit.

That's just amex being stubborn with their legacy of being slow.

What is AMEX? I remember a credit card provider from the 80's with a similar name, but even at that time few merchants accepted them and their billing and service was atrocious. They surely can't still be a thing?

jonb

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#3420853 3-Oct-2025 08:59

johno1234:

Sounds like it’s time to dump the KB visa for something else.
Is there any drawback to having your credit card at a different bank to the rest of your banking?

No drawback at all. I have a Warehouse Purple Visa card and just make it a bank account payee (or automatic direct debit if you will always pay full balance), actually one of the better ones for cashback rates and 24/36 interest free periods from some retailers with no 'Q Card' style rorts and admin fees.

As Richms said, is wise to keep the Kiwibank card active, just move your main spending to an extra card. Change your kiwibank visa to their 'Zero' visa for no annual fees and keep as backup.

pdh

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#3420869 3-Oct-2025 09:26

What is AMEX? I remember a credit card provider from the 80's with a similar name, but even at that time few merchants accepted them and their billing and service was atrocious. They surely can't still be a thing?

One of NZ's charming little idiosyncrasies is its almost total fixation on Visa & Mastercard.

The rest of the world does use a few alternatives - and AMEX has long been one of them (since 1850). It currently has about 140 million cardholders and is the world's 60th biggest company.

As an AMEX user, I never think twice about proffering it when overseas - as (eg) 99% of merchants accept it in North America. It's points system has paid for several of our overseas flights - so it's been an attractive card to use.

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