Poll: No more card payment surcharges – but who should be covering the cost? 💸
The Government says it's scrapping those annoying card surcharges – and it’s happening next year.
Consumer NZ is stoked, saying these sneaky surcharges cost Kiwis around $65 million a year and should’ve been gone ages ago.
But not everyone’s convinced it’s a win. Labour and Hospitality NZ are worried the costs won’t just disappear. Labour MP Arena Williams put it simply: there should not be surcharges for customers at all. But she points out that the Government’s plan does not deal with banks and merchants “who still scoop a big fee”.
Many of our community are rocked by the recent announcement. Retailers warn card surcharge ban could lead to higher prices - the unfortunatel reality is that small businesses are feeling the squeeze along with their customers. In comparison, large retailers pay significantly lower banking fees and ultimately have more leverage at the negotiation table.
💸 So someone still pays – but who?
We want to know: Who should be covering this cost?
Share your thoughts in the comments!
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5.7% Retailers need to absorb the cost
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88.7% The banks are the problem - the cost should not sit with consumers or retailers
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4.2% I do not mind paying a surcharge - I just want everything to be transparent
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1.4% It is more complicated - I will share below
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
New BEGINNERS LINEDANCING CLASS
Epsom Methodist church
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Monday 9th February 7pm - 9pm
Tuesday 10th February 10am -11am
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Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm on the day!
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