Latest / Best of Business / Leah McKerrow: North Chamber CEO on the call to reverse the ban on card surcharges

Transcript

Leah McKerrow: North Chamber CEO on the call to reverse the ban on card surcharges · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: New Zealand's top business leaders are pushing back on changes
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: to credit cards. Surcharges, Retail New Zealand and business chambers
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: across the country have penned an open letter to Commerce
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Minister Scott Simpson. They're urging him to reverse plans that
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: would ban businesses from passing on credit card fees. They
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: say that will lead to unintended consequences for business owners.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Leah mccarro, the CEO of North Chamber and one of
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the signatories, joins me. Now, good morningly, thanks for your time, Thomadier.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: What have businesses said to you about the band? How
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: dire are the consequences that we're looking at here?
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Well, look, the band comes into effect next May. So
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: while I haven't heard necessarily a lot specifically from the businesses,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: but we do know that any cost that's occurred by
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: them as going to actually affect them quite greatly. Particlarar
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: at the moment, so there is concern that these mountain
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: costs are going to have quite an impact on them.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Is the issue that small rural businesses are going to
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: be subsidizing US big city payway addicted consumers.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, you're right. It does depend on the
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: way that people pay, and obviously it's the credit cards
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: that are incurring the costs. We've got to remember that
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: the credit card companies and the banks are the ones
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: that actually set these fees, and there is already a
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: regulation in place that that businesses can't charge more than
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: they are being charged. But yes, it is going to
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: be those smaller those companies that take the money. They
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: are not going to incur the cost in the first place,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: so it won't matter too much to them.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Okay, was this an unintended consequence? Do you think? Do
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: you think that the minister knew that this would kind
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: of happen as a result of the law change.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Look, I think so. I mean, she has suggested that
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: that businesses treat it to treat that like any other
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: price increase, in that they just put it on top
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: of the costs. But that means that every consumer is
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: going to be impacted by that, not just so deciding
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: to use pay label credit cards, and that seems a
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: little unfair for every consumer.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Before the ban Leah, you know, small businesses were charging increasing,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: charging more and more for payWave. What's going to stop
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: them from doing that again? If the charges are.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Scraped, Well, I think that's what we're suggesting is rather
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: than scrapping them or or making it that small business
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: is not able to on charge it, that they put
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: in a restriction around that. There is already, as I said,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: a requirement to actually charge no more than that being charged.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: But surely we can do that and then have some
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: sort of consumer line that actually identifies those businesses that
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: may well be trying to buck the system and make
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: money out of it. That's not the point. The point
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: is that these small businesses are the ones that are
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: now going to be incurring these costs. What are they
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: to do?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Leah, On a completely different note, I believe the Northland
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Knopoly game has just arrived and Dargaville is upset they
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: got the brown spaces.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Well, I think that there was some concern. That was
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: the first question I got, asked who's the brown spaces?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: And I think we need to think about where could
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: I actually purchase a property when I'm just entering on
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: the ladder, and I reckon Dargavill is just the place
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: for people who got the gorgeous.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Who got the blue properties?
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Oh do you know, at the top of mind, I
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: cannot recall, but it is absolutely beautiful and it's lands
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: and Punkaray this morning, so we're going down to open
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: the container and it's pretty special actually.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Oh brilliant, brilliant. Enjoy that. Thank you so much, Lea,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: appreciate that that was THEA Maciro there for the CEO
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: of North Chamber and one of those signatories.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks B listen live on air
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: go with our podcast on IR Radio