Merchant fees explained

The Merchant Service Fee (MSF) is charged for Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay credit card transactions and debit online and contactless transactions that are processed through your merchant facility.  The MSF is calculated as a percentage of the dollar value of the transaction.

EFTPOS transactions are free in New Zealand. That means there is no transaction fee when the cardholder inserts or swipes their EFTPOS or scheme card and chooses ‘Cheque’ or ‘Savings’ when making a payment. 

Credit cards and contactless payments have different charges depending on a range of factors. 

Your MSF will vary depending on many things, including what types of cards your customers use, how you process these cards and the size and volume of your transactions.

The MSF is made up of five cost components:

This is the largest and most variable component of MSF. This fee is paid to the bank that issued the customer’s card (the issuing bank).

The interchange fee is variable, and is subject to maximum fee rates set by the relevant card scheme. Many factors determine this fee, including the type of card, how you process these cards (contactless, insert or swipe), and the country the card was issued in.

This is the fee paid to the card scheme (Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay).

The scheme fee varies based on the card scheme, card type, country the card was issued in, and the transaction value. 

This fee is paid to the network provider. It varies depending on the network, but is a fixed amount per transaction.

The float cost is a percentage-based fee that covers the interest cost that we incur to settle your funds to you, before we receive the funds from the issuing bank. 

This covers our operating costs, plus a margin.

We may review these rates with you from time to time as your business changes or if our cost to process your transactions change.

The fixed MSF is specific to your business and its setup. We provide separate pricing for contactless debit and credit transactions for all of our merchants on this fee structure. Depending on your merchant facility you may also have a separate rate for processing eCommerce, mail or telephone transactions.

Fixed rates are calculated based on your average transaction value, card mix and the way the transactions are processed (contactless, insert or swipe).

• Your rates are fixed for each card and transaction type, so you’ll know exactly what the fee percentages are you’ll pay each month. 
• The rates are calculated specific to your business and how it accepts payments.

With the Matrix option, your MSF is a variable rate, based on the sales volume and average transaction value processed through your facility during that month.

• Your MSF rate varies each month depending on your volume of sales and average transaction size.

Interchange reimbursement fees are paid by the merchant’s bank to the cardholder’s bank. 

Interchange reimbursement fees are paid by the merchant’s bank to the cardholder’s bank.