Telecom to add credit card surcharge

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom to add credit card surcharge

mattwnz

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#119635 8-Jun-2013 15:15

Just reading the online news and found out about this, which I wasn't aware of before

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8766549/Telecom-adds-surcharge-to-credit-card-bill-payments

Not aware of any other providers doing this yet, although my old ISP used to offer a discount if paying direct debit over credit card.

I pay by farmlands, so presume it will not be affected

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Mad Scientist
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#832708 8-Jun-2013 16:18

Hmm ... That's no good ...

old3eyes

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#832719 8-Jun-2013 16:37

Yep. I got an email about that last week. I guess it will be the norm soon. Personally i think it should just be a part of the billing service and not an extra charge.

I guess online banking will be next to get hit with a handling surcharge..

Regards,

Old3eyes

sbiddle

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#832728 8-Jun-2013 17:12

old3eyes: Yep. I got an email about that last week. I guess it will be the norm soon. Personally i think it should just be a part of the billing service and not an extra charge.

I guess online banking will be next to get hit with a handling surcharge..

They don't incur any additional % based charges for direct debit / direct credit.

The problem with Telecom's charge is that it's greater than what many would consider "fair". Intercharge fees are transparent and are available on all the big bank websites. End users need to decide whether a retailer charging more than this is profiteering.

In Australia we've already seen the changes in recent months with moves to basically prevent retailers charging more than the interchange fee.

nitrotech

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#832740 8-Jun-2013 18:00

Yes is does vary quite a bit being a small business we get charged 3.something percent (can't remember exactly what) for visa/MasterCard so 1.5% for telecom doesn't seem unreasonable.

I'm still really surprised to see the likes of Noel leeming and Harvey Norman with no surcharge as their margins and computers and electronics is crap as it is.

For telecom if their margins are reducing it's just another way to squeeze more juice out of the orange.

rugrat

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#832746 8-Jun-2013 18:22

I pay by credit card automatic payment. Had no letter from telecom.

If they charge for credit card I will pay by cash, I don't believe they can charge for cash, as it's the law that cash must be accepted for all debt repayments. Will cost them a lot more handling cash then credit card charges.

Also currently getting bill by email, will change it back to paper.

NonprayingMantis

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#832749 8-Jun-2013 18:39

rugrat: I pay by credit card automatic payment. Had no letter from telecom.

If they charge for credit card I will pay by cash, I don't believe they can charge for cash, as it's the law that cash must be accepted for all debt repayments. Will cost them a lot more handling cash then credit card charges.

Also currently getting bill by email, will change it back to paper.

the incremental cost of them handling your cash won't be any more than they alreadypay for handling of other people's cash, whereas the fee for credit card is a real cost per transaction.
so if you pay by cash you will not really be costing them anything, but costing yourself tiem and effort to take cash into the store.

Why wouldn't you just pay by direct debit or online banking? - much more convenient for you and there is no surcharge.

changing your bill back to paper sounds like a waste of your time too.

just cutting off your nose to spite your face IMO. makes you sound very bitter.

NonprayingMantis

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#832752 8-Jun-2013 18:41

sbiddle:
old3eyes: Yep. I got an email about that last week. I guess it will be the norm soon. Personally i think it should just be a part of the billing service and not an extra charge.

I guess online banking will be next to get hit with a handling surcharge..

They don't incur any additional % based charges for direct debit / direct credit.

The problem with Telecom's charge is that it's greater than what many would consider "fair". Intercharge fees are transparent and are available on all the big bank websites. End users need to decide whether a retailer charging more than this is profiteering.

In Australia we've already seen the changes in recent months with moves to basically prevent retailers charging more than the interchange fee.

1.5% seems on the low side to me.

I've seen plenty of other retailers charging 2 or 3%.

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sbiddle

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#832753 8-Jun-2013 18:41

nitrotech: Yes is does vary quite a bit being a small business we get charged 3.something percent (can't remember exactly what) for visa/MasterCard so 1.5% for telecom doesn't seem unreasonable.

I'm still really surprised to see the likes of Noel leeming and Harvey Norman with no surcharge as their margins and computers and electronics is crap as it is.

For telecom if their margins are reducing it's just another way to squeeze more juice out of the orange.

The going rate for large merchants these days is well under 1%

plambrechtsen

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#832756 8-Jun-2013 18:51

rugrat: I pay by credit card automatic payment. Had no letter from telecom.

If they charge for credit card I will pay by cash, I don't believe they can charge for cash, as it's the law that cash must be accepted for all debt repayments. Will cost them a lot more handling cash then credit card charges.

Also currently getting bill by email, will change it back to paper.

You can go into a nzpost store and pay cash in there. The retail stores you can't pay your bill in there.

http://help.telecom.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/188

rugrat

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#832758 8-Jun-2013 19:08

NonprayingMantis:
rugrat: I pay by credit card automatic payment. Had no letter from telecom.

If they charge for credit card I will pay by cash, I don't believe they can charge for cash, as it's the law that cash must be accepted for all debt repayments. Will cost them a lot more handling cash then credit card charges.

Also currently getting bill by email, will change it back to paper.

the incremental cost of them handling your cash won't be any more than they alreadypay for handling of other people's cash, whereas the fee for credit card is a real cost per transaction.
so if you pay by cash you will not really be costing them anything, but costing yourself tiem and effort to take cash into the store.

Why wouldn't you just pay by direct debit or online banking? - much more convenient for you and there is no surcharge.

changing your bill back to paper sounds like a waste of your time too.

just cutting off your nose to spite your face IMO. makes you sound very bitter.

I just competely disagree with companys charging for credit cards and refuse to shop with any that do.

A $70 bill and they can't absorb a dollar of charges to know that they'll be paid on time, no debt collection. And managing fees? Only time i conntact them is when credit card exoires, other then that it's all automated.
Need bill on paper to take to nz post, i walk past there once a month so no big deal paying that way.

It wil be interesting, as here in christchurch from memory pak and save tried to charge for credit cards, countdown didn't, end result pak and save had to back down as they lost to many customers.

I quit one power company cause they were charging credit card fees, to one that wasn't, and to top it off the company i switched to is a lower monthly fee.

eXDee

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#832761 8-Jun-2013 19:15

Will this affect prepaid topups?

mattwnz

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#832791 8-Jun-2013 21:02

NonprayingMantis:

1.5% seems on the low side to me.

I've seen plenty of other retailers charging 2 or 3%.

They will be the smaller ones charging 2-3% Ones that use payment processors like paymate and paypal may even charge more. Very large companies get charged lessor percentages due to a higher number of transactions, or special arrangements.

The thing about credit card is that it does appear to give more consumer protection, over other forms of payment like direct debit or direct credit. Wonder if they will look at using the poli system so people can make payment easier.

NonprayingMantis

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#832807 8-Jun-2013 22:25

rugrat:
NonprayingMantis:
rugrat: I pay by credit card automatic payment. Had no letter from telecom.

If they charge for credit card I will pay by cash, I don't believe they can charge for cash, as it's the law that cash must be accepted for all debt repayments. Will cost them a lot more handling cash then credit card charges.

Also currently getting bill by email, will change it back to paper.

the incremental cost of them handling your cash won't be any more than they alreadypay for handling of other people's cash, whereas the fee for credit card is a real cost per transaction.
so if you pay by cash you will not really be costing them anything, but costing yourself tiem and effort to take cash into the store.

Why wouldn't you just pay by direct debit or online banking? - much more convenient for you and there is no surcharge.

changing your bill back to paper sounds like a waste of your time too.

just cutting off your nose to spite your face IMO. makes you sound very bitter.

I just competely disagree with companys charging for credit cards and refuse to shop with any that do.

A $70 bill and they can't absorb a dollar of charges to know that they'll be paid on time, no debt collection. And managing fees? Only time i conntact them is when credit card exoires, other then that it's all automated.
Need bill on paper to take to nz post, i walk past there once a month so no big deal paying that way.

It wil be interesting, as here in christchurch from memory pak and save tried to charge for credit cards, countdown didn't, end result pak and save had to back down as they lost to many customers.

I quit one power company cause they were charging credit card fees, to one that wasn't, and to top it off the company i switched to is a lower monthly fee.

that's fine, but my point was that you seem to be putting yourself through a hell of a lot more than $1-2 worth of pain (i.e. waiting for the paper bill, taking it into the postshop and paying by cash sounds like a lot more than $2 worth of hassle when you could just leave it on credit card and pay the $2, or, heck, even pay by online banking any pay no surcharge) just because you think it will annoy telecom - that is the very definition of cutting of your nose to spite your face
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_off_the_nose_to_spite_the_face

the pak n save reversal wasn't because customers were annoyed at the charge, it was because Visa and Mastercard withdrew services from Pak N sav and so people couldn't use their credit cards at pak n save(this was back when they were allowed to enforce a 'no credit card surcharge on their customers)

When you switched power companies, if the one you switched to was $5 more expensive than your original one, and the credit card fees on the original one were $2, would you still have switched?

tardtasticx

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#832860 9-Jun-2013 01:15

I was always on the understanding that telecom was already charging you for using your credit card? Whenever I went to pay my mobile bill in the past they said there was a 3% surchage for using credit cards so I always went to the post shop or done it via online banking.

Or is this increasing that fee?

http://help.telecom.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/188/~/paying-your-telecom-bill

Click Payment Options > One-Off Credit/Debit-Card and it lists the % that you pay for each credit card type (Visa/MasterCard 3%, AMEX 2% etc)

nakedmolerat

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#832865 9-Jun-2013 06:07

tardtasticx: I was always on the understanding that telecom was already charging you for using your credit card? Whenever I went to pay my mobile bill in the past they said there was a 3% surchage for using credit cards so I always went to the post shop or done it via online banking.

Or is this increasing that fee?

http://help.telecom.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/188/~/paying-your-telecom-bill

Click Payment Options > One-Off Credit/Debit-Card and it lists the % that you pay for each credit card type (Visa/MasterCard 3%, AMEX 2% etc)

That's what I understand as well..

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