By Kate Harvey
Content Manager | Pou Whakahaere Ihirangi
Ticketek will be reducing the surcharge people pay when they use a credit or debit card to buy tickets after we applied pressure with the help of our readers.
Since the introduction of the Retail Payment System Act in November, businesses have been paying lower fees for accepting credit card and debit card payments, including contactless payments such as payWave.
But we‘re still seeing surcharges we consider excessive and, at the start of the year, asked our readers to let us know if they saw a surcharge over 2%. We’ve received over 30 complaints to date.
Ticketek was one of the businesses we received complaints about, and when we looked at their website found the “payment processing fee” differed across events. For some tickets, especially sporting ones, the fee was 3.5%. We thought that was excessive, so we contacted Ticketek to ask them why they were charging so much.
Ticketek told us it was aware of the Retail Payment Systems Act and takes its compliance with the Act seriously. It also said it periodically reviews its fees.
Since contacting Ticketek, it now has a standard 3% surcharge across its website and has told us it’s in the process of lowering it further but wouldn’t confirm what the new surcharge will be.
Consumer CEO Jon Duffy says the work of the readers who took the time to contact us was paying off.
“The difference of a percent might not seem like a lot when you’re paying for a ticket, but when you consider Ticketek is filling stadiums, that’s a lot of money that should be in the pockets of consumers,” Jon said.
High surcharges are particularly prevalent in the hotel, travel, entertainment and parking sectors.
If you see a surcharge higher than 2%, we’d still like to hear from you so we can contact the business. You can email [email protected].
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