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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BDFL - Memuneh
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#3397667 28-Jul-2025 14:24

Everything changing...

Surcharges on in-store payments, including PayWave, to be banned

The government plans to ban surcharges on card payments in-store, saving shoppers from being stung with surprise fees when paying with contactless technology.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson announced the change on Monday afternoon, declaring: "That pesky note or sticker on the payment machine will become a thing of the past."

"Shoppers will no longer be penalised for their choice of payment method, whether that's tapping, swiping or using their phone's digital wallet."

Oh, people will be penalised. Prices will go up, to include that fee.

eracode

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#3397668 28-Jul-2025 14:33

freitasm:

Everything changing...

Oh, people will be penalised. Prices will go up, to include that fee.

Yep some retailers, who didn’t overtly charge the fee, may feel they have free rein to increase prices. Competition may control that. Retailers have always had a right to set their prices.

Potentially inflationary but probably not huge overall.

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sen8or

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#3397669 28-Jul-2025 14:34

Its one of those weird little add on fees that businesses charge because they seem to be able to get away with it (for the most part), I know the boss won't be happy, but when people spend many thousands of dollars, the few extra for a surcharge really only impede customer satisfaction

Jvipers2

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#3397681 28-Jul-2025 14:54

Target date: May 2026 if there's no pushback...

9 more months of "convenience" surcharge and then hopefully all good

wellygary

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#3397728 28-Jul-2025 15:05

freitasm:

Everything changing...

Surcharges on in-store payments, including PayWave, to be banned

TBH the writing has been on the wall for a while....

When Australia went and followed the EU/UK it was unlikely the NZ would hang out to be "pure" despite the ComCom's best efforts at attacking the fees with a wet bus ticket,

I guess retailers will still have the option of doing the "EFTPOS only/ No credit" approach,

but a few more $million spent by VISA/MCARD on "brand awareness" is likely to really make it impractical for retailers not to accept credit cards...

Waiting for city councils to rack up their parking costs now as they are still some of the highest % fees for Paywave...

mattwnz

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#3397729 28-Jul-2025 15:12

TBH I didn't mind the actual CC fee as long as Eftpos and cash was free. But the paywave fee was just ridiculous. Now I guess all consumers will pay for people to use credit cards, unless banks reduce their fees. They are making a lot of money clipping the ticket and it fees like a bank tax. They don't seem to like cash and eftpos and cash machines machines are disappearing, and being replaced by third party machines which charge a fee.

cruxis

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#3397732 28-Jul-2025 15:21

Can shops still offer a discount for those that use eftpos or swipe. Like 2% off?

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sen8or

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#3397736 28-Jul-2025 15:35

cruxis:

Can shops still offer a discount for those that use eftpos or swipe. Like 2% off?

I would think that would fall into the same region as a cash price and an interest free price that Noel Leemings used to do many years ago before being pinged by the comcom.

wellygary

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#3397741 28-Jul-2025 15:40

mattwnz:

TBH I didn't mind the actual CC fee as long as Eftpos and cash was free.

Banks have made cash an expensive option for business,

They charge them a fortune for over the counter deposits and other forms of "cash handling" ... Most businesses are happy to do as much as possible by EFTPOS as their lowest cost payment option...

The cost of cash will get a decent airing if the "must accept cash" members bill from NZ First is picked up for debate...

mattwnz

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#3397770 28-Jul-2025 17:11

wellygary:

mattwnz:

TBH I didn't mind the actual CC fee as long as Eftpos and cash was free.

Banks have made cash an expensive option for business,

They charge them a fortune for over the counter deposits and other forms of "cash handling" ... Most businesses are happy to do as much as possible by EFTPOS as their lowest cost payment option...

The cost of cash will get a decent airing if the "must accept cash" members bill from NZ First is picked up for debate...

To be fair, we don't want to lose cash as an option IMO. Both cash and eftpos also prevent banks from making a % from each transaction. But when there is no power for example, cash is the only option. Maybe NZ First will ban banks from charging for handling cash.

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#3397779 28-Jul-2025 17:35

mattwnz:

TBH I didn't mind the actual CC fee as long as Eftpos and cash was free. But the paywave fee was just ridiculous. Now I guess all consumers will pay for people to use credit cards, unless banks reduce their fees. They are making a lot of money clipping the ticket and it fees like a bank tax. They don't seem to like cash and eftpos and cash machines machines are disappearing, and being replaced by third party machines which charge a fee.

Are you able to back that up with any facts?
Do you know what the interchange rates are and how much the banks make on their margins over interchange, minus costs to provide the services they do?
Why don't we have a crack at the electricity providers? The EFTPOS terminal rental companies? The government for forcing retailers to pay their staff a wage, instead of being able to use them for free?

This sort of uninformed rhetoric really does my head in.

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#3397789 28-Jul-2025 18:53

Regarding surcharges here in Australia, they’re pretty much everywhere.
The reason why I bring this up, is that a number of retailers have gone card only (eg. They don’t accept cash rightly or wrongly) and yet charge a surcharge (even for EFTPOS which is priced differently over here). In these situations, I feel that the price you pay needs to be inclusive of a minimum level of card acceptance. I can understand American Express, discover etc incurring more.

One of the other challenges is that there is a huge variation (1-3%) in what you’re actually charged as a surcharge between retailers. Being able to pass the fee 100% onto the customer arguably removes some incentive from the retailer to try and get the best priced payment service possible. Yes, most will disclose this on a small sign at the POS, but by that point you’ve already gone through the motions of putting goods in the trolley or eating/drinking the goods.

Finally - quite a few EFTPOS units will only display the surcharge after the fact or not give you the option of reviewing the surcharge prior to payment processing.

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mattwnz

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#3397798 28-Jul-2025 19:37

Handsomedan:

mattwnz:

TBH I didn't mind the actual CC fee as long as Eftpos and cash was free. But the paywave fee was just ridiculous. Now I guess all consumers will pay for people to use credit cards, unless banks reduce their fees. They are making a lot of money clipping the ticket and it fees like a bank tax. They don't seem to like cash and eftpos and cash machines machines are disappearing, and being replaced by third party machines which charge a fee.

Are you able to back that up with any facts?
Do you know what the interchange rates are and how much the banks make on their margins over interchange, minus costs to provide the services they do?
Why don't we have a crack at the electricity providers? The EFTPOS terminal rental companies? The government for forcing retailers to pay their staff a wage, instead of being able to use them for free?

This sort of uninformed rhetoric really does my head in.

Is that information reported in the NZ media? There are plenty of compliants about electricity providers and fees. The government aren’t banning banks charging fees from what I have read.

gzt

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#3397799 28-Jul-2025 19:48

Personally I support regulation and making the market on contactless because we're just behind the times it's embarrassing for NZ.

gzt

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#3397800 28-Jul-2025 19:58

I really don't want to subsidize the credit card percentage and all the darn reward schemes. Is that what this also does in effect?

At the supermarket the other day thinking about low supermarket margins and my grocery bill - why the thing should people paying eftpos cash have to subsidise the supermarket because they have to pay extra to take credit cards?

I think I'd make cost recovery surcharge compulsory for credit cards! /Kneejerk

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