[lca2018-chat] Just a couple of weeks to go!

[Chris Packham]

On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 10:02 AM, Brian May <brian at linuxpenguins.xyz> wrote:
> Andrew Donnellan <andrew at donnellan.id.au> writes:
>
>> I agree with Ewen that you absolutely can get away without much cash at all
>> - you might want some for smaller food outlets that prefer cash to card,
>> and for splitting bills at restaurants that don't like to split for you,
>> but otherwise if you're happy to cop the foreign transaction fee on your
>> card you'll be able to use at least Visa/Mastercard in most places.
>
> Be careful though.
>
> I once got stuck after making a purchase in NZ at a kiosk without
> cash. We told them beforehand that we didn't have NZD cash, and were
> unsure of our ability to pay, and they said they don't take credit card,
> only EFTPOS, and it would be fine. They proceeded to make the order
> (icecreams) and we found we couldn't pay - our cards did not work.  I
> would have preferred they get our payment first before making the order,
> but they didn't - maybe we should have demanded this. Or maybe we should
> have ordered something small and returnable first. Eventually we were
> able to pay in AUD cash (the sales assistant had said no to AUD but the
> manager fortunately noticed we had AUD and said it was fine).

I think that's a NZ thing.

With EFTPOS the transaction fee is charged to the customer by the bank
and those of us with mortgages generally get those fees waived as part
of the deal. Others may get a fixed monthly fee or just pay some small
amount per transaction.

With Visa/Mastercard/Amex the fee is charged to the retailer. So the
retailers will either take the hit, refuse to take "credit" cards
(which can include those newer debit cards) or add a surcharge.

> Turns out (according to rumour) the EFTPOS network in NZ (as opposed
> credit card transactions) is completely different and seperate from the
> EFTPOS network in AU. There is no interaction between the two. Where as
> my earlier research seemed to imply that they are the one an same. Would
> be really good if this sort of information on how these networks work
> (e.g. which network a transaction uses and what area it covers) was
> published on the Internet somewhere...

Possibly same technology different networks. I know NZ was one of the
early adopters of EFTPOS which has lead to a slower up-take of the
newer credit-card based systems.

Anecdotally I think I may have accidentally used my NZ EFTPOS card at
a previous LCA but I certainly wouldn't rely on it. Definitely bring a
credit/debit card or plan to stop at an ATM if you wan't to avoid
fees. I've not run into a place in previous LCAs that didn't take my
credit card but I think pretty much all of them added a 2.5%
surcharge.