What are the rules around having a surcharge?
- Reasonable cost of acceptance – In NZ the intent of the surcharge is to give merchants the ability to offset the fees that they are being charged by the bank for Credit card and contactless transactions. For this reason the surcharge should be set to the same or similar percentage that the bank are charging them.
- Display surcharge signage – You are required to declare that you are applying a surcharge to certain forms of payment and specify the amount that will be charged. This gives customers the chance to decide if they would like to accept the surcharge or pay another way.
- Applying the surcharge – This must be done as part of the transaction and not charged separately. You must declare what the surcharge amount is prior to the customer making the payment. The EFTPOS terminal will do this for you on-screen.
You can download customisable surcharge signage from our website here.