(3 July 2018 – New Zealand) Burger King New Zealand will no longer accept payWave and payPass as a payment option due to what the group cites are “significantly higher fees” associated with high service charges from banks and credit card companies relative to other channels according to a spokesperson.
Many retailers are reviewing their contactless payments arrangement due to “substantial” costs of offering the service to shoppers while Burger King has stopped accepting contactless payment at its stores altogether. Research from Retail NZ shows New Zealand retailers are paying 1.2 percent for every swipe of a contactless debit card, while in Australia retailers pay 0.6 percent, and UK retailers pay 0.2 percent. The figures were similar for contactless credit card payments. The main difference is attributed to the lack of regulation of interchange fees New Zealand banks charge each other for credit and contactless debit transactions.
Burger King were one of many retailers no longer offering the service because of the cost despite both Visa and Mastercard introducing measures in April to reduce interchange fees applied in New Zealand and rising popularity of NFC mobile payments services such as ApplePay. A large proportion of enterprises simply never switch on contactless payment options also. In 2017 many some businesses in the retail sector commenced applying surcharges payPass and payWave of up to two percent and greater.
“Traditional transactions, where the customer swipes or inserts their card, are “essentially free” for the retailer, while contactless debit card payments carry “substantial costs”” said Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford.