Originally Posted by
akl_cat
A key difference between AU and NZ is that EFTPOS here has been free since its inception but it has always not been free (albeit cheaper than Visa, MC etc.) in AU. Merchants here have taken it for granted that card payments should be and should always be free. It has never been worked into the cost model and therefore the surcharge on debit and credit cards is rampant.
I suspect if ComCom follows suit to ban surcharge here it will result in a stronger reaction among the merchants here in NZ. Maybe we will see some merchants going back to just being EFTPOS only, despite the cost of debit and credit card coming down with the interchange regulation (which will be announced tomorrow). Anything not free is too expensive.
Declined margin of banks impacting their ability buy points from Air NZ, coupled with reduced card acceptance and therefore usage, will be a double-whammy for Air NZ.
I suspect if ComCom follows suit to ban surcharge here it will result in a stronger reaction among the merchants here in NZ. Maybe we will see some merchants going back to just being EFTPOS only,
it must be hard for the merchants to work out if a sale will be lost if they reject credit cards.
It is hard to know if the customer has no money in their bank account so will decide not to spend at all when faced with a credit card rejection.