Making and accepting payments
The ability to make and accept payments is central to the New Zealand economy, but different payment options have different costs and benefits for businesses and consumers.
There’s a range of payment options that offer different prices, add-on services, and extra convenience for businesses and customers.
Businesses offer a range of payment methods to suit the needs of businesses and customers – this may include cash, card-based, digital or online payments.
Payment costs
Different products cost different amounts and the same is true with different payment methods. Where there is an extra cost to a business for accepting a payment method, the business can decide how to recover these costs.
For example, when a customer uses a contactless or credit card, the business is charged a percentage fee to cover the costs involved in processing that type of transaction.
Most businesses will pay the cost to accept contactless or credit cards through their Merchant Service Fees, which they pay to their payment provider.
You can learn more about Merchant Service Fees and different options.
Different payment options cost different amounts, but may also come with different benefits. Some payment methods may be comparatively more expensive but offer added convenience. While payment methods like EFTPOS and interbank transfers tend to be lower cost for both businesses and customers.
We encourage businesses to understand the costs and benefits of different payment options when considering what best meets their needs.
Payment surcharges
Sometimes a business faces extra costs for offering a particular way to pay. When this happens, it may pass on that extra cost as a payment surcharge.
Every business should offer at least one surcharge‑free payment option. For online payments, unavoidable fees should be included upfront in the total price. Any surcharge that is added should only cover the extra cost compared with the surcharge‑free option. Some payment methods, like EFTPOS for in-person payments, should not include a surcharge as they do not cost businesses extra to accept.
We would expect any in-person surcharge rates reduce toward 1% or lower for most businesses. This is in line with market rates that are available for most businesses and for most payment types.
We can also issue surcharging standards to ensure surcharges reflect the extra cost of a payment option.