In the recovery of a difficult period world wide following Covid-19, New Zealanders would prefer to make contactless payments through facilities such as Paywave used by major providers.

Unfortunately many vendors do not offer this because the surcharges imposed by banks to the usage of Paywave services make the facility too financially impacting to offer. In New Zealand, retailers pay more than triple the contactless fees their retail counterparts in the United Kingdom do.

We would request that banks/card vendors reduce the fees to the same or lower levels to non-contactless options permanently to allow mass take up of this functionality and reduce the possible spread of infectious diseases.