Source: Radio New Zealand
Consumer says that shoppers using cards should not pay more than about 1.3 percent in surcharges and anything close to 2 percent was likely to be excessive. 123RF
Shoppers are being told to “swerve” any unreasonable surcharges they encounter this Christmas.
Since 1 December, new limits have applied to interchange fees, which a retailer’s bank pays to a shopper’s bank when they use a card.
This means savings for businesses but Consumer NZ spokesperson Jessica Walker told Midday Report her organisation was worried it was not always flowing through to savings for shoppers.
She said people should not pay more than 1.2 percent or 1.3 percent in surcharges now.
“Anything close to 2 percent is likely to be excessive. We want consumers to be on the lookout.”
She said New Zealand’s guidelines required retailers to offer shoppers a way to pay that did not incur a surcharge, such as cash or inserting or swiping a card. People who were worried they were going to be charged too high a surcharge should use a different payment method, she said.
“If you see a fee of 2 percent or more, swerve it.”
Walker said there were also cases where surcharges were not appropriately disclosed.
Shoppers should ask the retailer whether there would be a surcharge and how much it would be, she said.
Walker said Consumer was “always” getting complaints about excessive surcharges and had not seen a change in that yet.
Some businesses might not have updated their systems, she said.
“We’re wanting people to be aware of this. Businesses are going to be saving money. We understand the fees are now comparable with some of the lowest in the world so it’s only fair that the saving is passed on to consumers.”
Walker said estimates were that New Zealanders were paying anything from $45 million to $65m a year in excessive surcharges.
“Anything that can be done to protect consumers is a good thing. This is something we want to bring to the public consciousness if they are spending more over coming weeks and months.”
Meanwhile, it has been reported that retailers want to push the government to ease its plans for a hardline ban on in-store surcharges.
“Our members have been really unhappy about it. We’ve surveyed all our members and we’ve been talking about it for a while and they’re really clear that it’s not something that they support,” Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said.
Young hoped to convince the government to compromise by capping surcharges instead of banning them entirely.
“What we’re trying to do is provide a solution that’s a middle ground that should appease everyone,” she said.
Her proposal was for surcharges on debit card transactions to be capped at 0.5 percent, and for credit cards to be capped at 1 percent.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
