Surcharging

The below provides more information on payment surcharges for consumers and for businesses and other organisations to assist them with surcharging appropriately.

Surcharging update

As part of our work to better understand surcharging practices we have engaged with a small sample of merchants. This open letter provides an update on our engagement to date.

Consumers – Payment surcharges

Different products cost different amounts and the same is true with different payment methods. Where there is an extra cost to the seller for providing a payment method, there might be an extra cost to you for using that method. This is a payment surcharge. In practice, this is the additional fee you may come across when using a higher cost payment method such as your credit card or contactless debit card to make a payment.

There are payment methods that should not incur any surcharges, such as when inserting or swiping your debit or Eftpos card. This is because there is no additional cost to the seller for using these payment methods. This note explains surcharging in further detail.

Merchants – Appropriate payment surcharging explained

Accepting different payment methods can impose different costs on you as a merchant. A surcharge is an extra fee charged to recoup any additional cost from your customers where they choose to use a way to pay that is more expensive for you to provide. This note explains how you can surcharge appropriately.

Payment Service Providers

Outlined in the below letter to payment service providers, we consider they can assist their merchants by supplying better information that will then allow merchants to surcharge appropriately.

The letter is addressed to acquirers in the Mastercard and Visa networks, terminal providers and credit networks.

Some payment methods, such as Eftpos, don’t incur additional costs to merchants and consumers can use these methods to avoid surcharges.

Debit card payments in Aotearoa New Zealand – a brief history

A brief history of debit card payments in New Zealand and how they have evolved over time since the introduction of Eftpos in 1989.