New Zealand plans to scrap card payment surcharges
The plan follows the decision last year by New Zealand's Commerce Commission to lower fees that local businesses pay to accept Visa and Mastercard payments.
"We are scrapping surcharges at the till. New Zealanders are paying up to NZ$150 million in surcharges every year. That's money that could be saved or spent elsewhere," Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters.
"You no longer will be penalised for your choice of payment method, whether that's tapping, swiping, or using your phone's digital wallet."
Visa and Mastercard both welcomed the decision.
Banning surcharges was "a welcome win for transparency and fairness at the checkout for consumers and reflects Visa's long-held view on surcharging globally," Anthony Watson, country manager for New Zealand and South Pacific, said.
A spokesperson for Mastercard said the ban aligns New Zealand "with other leading economies at a time when payment acceptance costs have never been lower".
The proposed ban will not include online payments or transactions made using foreign-issued cards, prepaid, travel and gift cards.
New Zealand's Commerce Commission estimates consumers pay about NZ$150 million in surcharges annually, including up to NZ$65 million in excessive surcharges.
"Surcharges cover the fees businesses pay for accepting contactless payments and credit cards, but we know these are often excessive. In some cases, the retailer doesn't even make it clear what the percentage is," Commerce Minister Scott Simpson said in a statement.
The government plans to introduce the bill to ban most card surcharges by the end of this year.
Shops in New Zealand typically charge consumers around 0.7 per cent for debit card payments and up to 2 per cent for credit card payments, according to New Zealand's Commerce Commission.
Australia's central bank this month proposed to scrap surcharges on most debit and credit card payments for consumers, saying it no longer achieved the intended purpose of steering consumers to make more efficient payment choices.
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The Star
10 minutes ago
- The Star
From designer shoes to toasters, scavengers salvage luxury goods abandoned by college students
Valentino sneakers that retail for US$980 (RM4,165). A Tovala toaster oven, originally US$390 (RM1,655). A Clear Home Design Lucite table, which would have cost US$899 (RM3,820) – except in this case, it was free. Lena Geller found those items, and many others, in the trash room of her apartment building in Durham, North Carolina, the United States after scores of Duke University students had moved out at the end of the spring semester. "It feels wrong for this much stuff to have been thrown out,' Geller wrote in an article for INDY Week, where she's a staff writer. She kept a spreadsheet of the roughly 70 items she found in the trash, estimating, after doing some research, that they originally retailed for US$6,600 (RM28,040) in total. "I've had a few friends text me after reading the piece, like, 'We should put together some kind of business plan',' Geller, 26, said in an interview. "It does feel like most of the stuff that I got was just sitting there. I do think there's a lot of money to be made.' Two pairs of designer shoes and a Lucite table that once belonged to Duke University students. Every year, as graduation season ends, many departing students throw away or simply abandon expensive household items and luxury goods instead of donating or taking them back home. Local residents and scavengers are stepping in, rescuing items to reuse or sell, then touting their finds on social media. Peter Valley, a 47-year-old software company founder, has been selling discarded books from college students for years. To him and many other scavengers, college campuses are a virtually inexhaustible source of goods that can be resold, kept or donated. "My earliest success was dumpster diving at Caltech in Pasadena,' he said. "My girlfriend and I dumpster dived a couple thousand dollars' worth of books from the campus recycling centre. That was a big 'aha!' moment, where I realised that this could be a real business.' 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I mean, I'm 62, and I'm retired. Doesn't take that much to amuse me.' College campus dumpster diving isn't new, but social media has given it prominence. At the University of Wisconsin, a stretch of August has long been known as "Hippie Christmas' because so many students deposit their unwanted belongings on front lawns. Bostonians, who live in something of a giant college town, devoutly mark "Allston Christmas' each September. In a 1991 essay, Lars Eighner, who became famous for chronicling his experiences with homelessness, said that he focused his scavenging on a college town and that he found "it advantageous to keep an eye on the academic calendar'. In recent years, many colleges have adopted what Scott Galloway, a podcaster and marketing professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, has called "the posture of luxury brands', with lavish housing and gyms fit for professional athletes. Some say such amenities inflate costs while doing nothing in the way of education. Yet many parents readily fork over thousands of dollars for interior decorators to work their magic on a child's college dorm. Lena Geller shows a neon heart light with an original retail of $117 that was left behind when Duke University students moved out of her apartment. — Photo: Cornell Watson/The New York Times) At the same time, anxiety about climate change is rising among young people. Rescuing and wearing someone else's Lululemon shorts is one way to fight back against pollution and wastefulness. "It's truly transgressive because it's stepping out of that idea that we have to be consumers,' said Lisa Beiswenger, an assistant professor at Saint Francis University who taught a class on dumpster diving at the University of Akron. 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The email said that last year, the school "diverted over 49,000lbs (22 tonnes) of material, valued at almost US$334,000 (RM1.4mil)'. But sustainability experts say that on many campuses, such efforts are either limited or nonexistent, leaving dumpster divers to perform an important service. Anna Sacks, a Manhattan-based waste expert, criticised Columbia University for not doing nearly enough to make sure that students can either donate or resell items like mini fridges, which are too cumbersome to carry home. At the same time, access to campus has been heavily restricted, making it an all but impregnable dumpster diving destination. "To see this every single year is disgusting,' Sacks said. This year, she scavenged what she could, even as she approached her ninth month of pregnancy. "I got maple syrup that I just had with my yogurt,' she said. Her friend scored a Moncler jacket retailing for more than US$2,000 (RM8,500). (A spokesperson for Columbia did not respond to a request for comment.) Scavenging veterans say that anyone wishing to join their ranks should look for schools with high populations of international students, who are unlikely to haul televisions on transoceanic flights. For safety and camaraderie, go with a group. And do remember that you're going to be sorting trash. "I bring hand sanitiser,' Sacks said. – ©2025 The New York Times Company
Focus Malaysia
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