EFTPOS and card fees in NZ: what you pay in 2026

Inserting or swiping an NZ EFTPOS card is still free for the merchant. Contactless and credit card payments cost a merchant service fee, and on top of that you pay monthly for the terminal and the network it runs on. Card fees should have dropped after new interchange caps took effect on 1 December 2025. And the proposed surcharge ban is not law: as at 5 October 2026 it's still a bill.

Here's what each cost is, what changed, and what you're allowed to do about it. This is our own desk research from bank pages, the Commerce Commission and NZ legislation, checked on 5 October 2026. To total your own costs, use our true cost calculator.

The four costs of taking cards

The terminal, network and SIM figures come from Eftpos NZ's May 2025 breakdown. Shift4 (formerly Smartpay) gives the same $30–$60 lease range for most providers in its cost blog, against $0 rental on its own Low Cost Tap & Pay plan (more on that below). Eftpos NZ quoted the Paymark price when that network still traded as Worldline; it has since gone back to the Paymark name.

The first three are fixed monthly costs, whether you sell one coffee or a thousand. Our EFTPOS rental guide compares terminal deals.

Merchant service fees explained

The merchant service fee (MSF) is what your bank or payment provider charges you for each card payment it processes. ANZ charges it on Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay credit cards and on online and contactless debit, as a percentage of the sale.

What's free: BNZ and ASB both say there's no MSF when a customer inserts or swipes their NZ card and chooses CHQ or SAV. Tap the same Visa or Mastercard debit card instead, and ASB says it incurs interchange and a merchant service fee.

What's inside the fee: BNZ splits the MSF into four parts:

• Interchange: paid by your bank to the customer's bank. The biggest part; the Commerce Commission says interchange made up 60% of merchant service fees in 2024.
• Scheme fee: charged by Visa or Mastercard.
• Transaction fee: charged by the network or gateway.
• Acquirer margin: your bank's share, which covers support, disputes and fraud prevention.

How you're charged: a blended plan rolls everything into one rate. Interchange plus (BNZ's name for it) passes on the actual interchange cost plus a fixed margin, so you see exactly when interchange falls. BNZ suggests checking your average rate by dividing your monthly fees by your sales: its example, $120 of fees on $9,500 of sales, works out to 1.26%.

The 1 December 2025 interchange caps

The Commerce Commission's final decision (17 July 2025) cut the caps on NZ-issued cards from 1 December 2025:

The important bit: these caps limit interchange, not your merchant service fee. Interchange is paid by your bank to the card issuer. Your bank decides how much of the saving reaches you. Eftpos NZ says merchants should have seen the first difference on their January 2026 statement, and "if you did not, contact your merchant services provider."

Overseas cards from 1 May 2026

For the first time, interchange on overseas-issued Visa and Mastercard payments is capped, from 1 May 2026. Eftpos NZ's summary puts the caps at about 0.7% for credit and 0.6% for debit in person, and about 1.5% for credit and 1.4% for debit online.

Commercial cards: draft caps only

Business and corporate credit cards are still uncapped. On 4 June 2026 the Commerce Commission released a draft decision to cap them, which it expects to save businesses about $40 million a year, with a final decision expected later in 2026. It also estimates the personal card changes will save businesses up to $290 million a year once fully in place.

What POS systems charge for cards

Most POS systems don't process cards themselves. They send the amount to your EFTPOS terminal, and your bank or terminal provider charges the fee.

Shopify is the exception: its in-person rate on the Basic plan is its own, through Shopify Payments. Read Shopify POS and EFTPOS in NZ for how that works with EFTPOS cards. For comparison, Stripe NZ starts at 2.6% + NZ$0.05 per domestic in-person card payment. Shift4 offers a "Low Cost Tap & Pay" plan with "one flat, low rate" for Visa and Mastercard. Its cost blog shows that rate as "~ 1%" per transaction, and says it prices the rate for your business based on the cards you accept, so get a quote.

To see which terminals work with which POS, use our EFTPOS checker or read the Windcave and Shift4 guides.

Surcharging: what's allowed now

Surcharging card payments is legal in New Zealand today. A select committee put it plainly in November 2025: "At present, no law prevents merchants from setting surcharges." The Commerce Commission can issue merchant surcharging standards, but hasn't issued any.

What it has issued is guidance (July 2023). To surcharge appropriately:

• Tell customers before they pay. Make the surcharge clear up front.
• Offer at least one way to pay without a surcharge.
• Charge no more than your extra cost for that payment type. In most cases that's your merchant service fee. Your POS, staff and electricity costs shouldn't go into it.

The guidance's example rates come from before the December 2025 caps, so work from your own current statement, not old rule-of-thumb percentages. If your credit card fees dropped and your surcharge didn't, it's time to adjust it.

Terminal providers can surcharge automatically. Eftpos NZ sells surcharging as an add-on for $10 + GST per terminal. Shift4's "No Fees" option applies a surcharge to credit and contactless payments on the fly.

The surcharge ban: where it's at

As at 5 October 2026 the surcharge ban is a bill, not law. Here's the timeline:

• 16 September 2025: after its first reading, the Retail Payment System (Ban on Merchant Surcharges) Amendment Bill is referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee.
• 13 November 2025: the committee reports back and recommends, by majority, that it pass. ACT records concerns about "unintended consequences"; Labour signals amendments.
• 1 December 2025: the Retail Payment System Act is updated (version as at that date) with no surcharge ban in it.
• 13 March 2026: the Green Party releases an amendment paper proposing a 1% cap on merchant service fees for payments covered by the ban.
• March 2026: ACT leader David Seymour tells interest.co.nz his party has pulled its support. Labour later says it will reserve its position until the second reading.
• 1 October 2026: the day Australia's ban takes effect, 1News reports that New Zealand's restrictions had been intended by May. Commerce Minister Cameron Brewer says National's intention to ban surcharging is unchanged.

What the bill would do if passed: ban surcharges on in-store EFTPOS, Visa and Mastercard debit and credit payments. A surcharge that breaks the ban would be unenforceable and the customer entitled to a refund. Regulations could later extend it to online payments or other networks such as American Express. It would take effect one month after Royal assent, so you'd get at least a month's notice.

We'll update this section when the bill moves. Until then, follow the Commerce Commission guidance above.

GST on card fees and surcharges

Surcharges you charge customers: Inland Revenue says "the GST treatment of credit or debit card fees almost always follows the GST treatment of the underlying goods or services." In practice, a surcharge on a standard-rated sale usually includes GST.

Fees your bank charges you: we couldn't confirm from an Inland Revenue source whether GST applies to merchant service fees. Check how your bank's statement shows it, and ask your accountant before you claim it back.

How to lower your card costs

1. Push customers to insert or swipe for debit. It costs you nothing, where a tap doesn't.
2. Check your January 2026 statement onward. Credit card fees should have dropped. If they didn't, ask your provider why.
3. Ask about interchange plus. You'll see future cuts pass straight through.
4. Work out your average rate (fees ÷ sales × 100) and compare it with quotes from other providers.
5. Review your surcharge, if you have one, so it matches today's cost and not 2023's.
6. Count the fixed fees too. A cheaper rate on a pricier terminal or network can cost more overall.

Plug your numbers into our true cost calculator, see EFTPOS terminals for the hardware, or compare all seven POS systems side by side.