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GST Tax & Credit Card Fee - Australia & New Zealand


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Hello.  I wanted to confirm that when I see a price on a website for a product or service in both Australia and New Zealand, the price includes the GST tax.  Is that correct?  For example, I'm looking at a hotel in Auckland.  If the price is say, 150 NZD, there will be no tax added, right?  Also, is it typical for vendors to add a percentage fee for use of a credit card?  About how much is generally added?  Thanks. 

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26 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Hello.  I wanted to confirm that when I see a price on a website for a product or service in both Australia and New Zealand, the price includes the GST tax.  Is that correct?  For example, I'm looking at a hotel in Auckland.  If the price is say, 150 NZD, there will be no tax added, right?  Also, is it typical for vendors to add a percentage fee for use of a credit card?  About how much is generally added?  Thanks. 

 

Yes that is correct in Australia. The price quoted is what you pay. All prices include GST. For example on my receipt from from supermarket shopping recently - 

Total for 34 items             $91.50

GST included in total         $3.62

 

All the prices of items on my receipt included the GST and it is just the total where there will likely be a breakdown of GST paid.

 

I believe it is the same in NZ and one of the New Zealanders who frequent here will be able to confirm it.

 

As for credit card surcharges/processing fee in Australia, vendors are only able to charge customers what it actually costs them to process payments for EFTPOS, MasterCard, Visa and American Express cards, including bank fees and terminal costs. Typically the surcharge will be 1.5% to 3% and not all vendors will charge the processing fee. Hotels quite often do.

 

Leigh

 

 

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22 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Hello.  I wanted to confirm that when I see a price on a website for a product or service in both Australia and New Zealand, the price includes the GST tax.  Is that correct?  For example, I'm looking at a hotel in Auckland.  If the price is say, 150 NZD, there will be no tax added, right?  Also, is it typical for vendors to add a percentage fee for use of a credit card?  About how much is generally added?  Thanks. 

The advertised price is the final price you pay.

If there’s a credit card fee they have to inform you.

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Yep as everyone said, the price you see is the price you pay, except some places charge a credit card fee, usually around 2%, but usually restricted to Hotels,  Service Stations (Gas stations) and a couple of grocery stores (Aldi is probably the most notable in that category) I don’t recall ever being hit with it anywhere else.

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1 hour ago, GUT2407 said:

One of the things that always bugged me in the USA was seeing a price, but then having to work out all the add ons like state taxes, tips etc.

Sometimes a big list,a cheap hotel room becomes expensive.

 

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2 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

Sometimes a big list,a cheap hotel room becomes expensive.

 

Yep and so hard to know how much each add on is, what Tax does this state or that state charge, do I need to add x, y or z. Might be fortunate that my days of international travel are over

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Yes, I have to admit I love the idea of the price being the final price!  I can see that it would be quite confusing to visit the U.S. if you're coming from Australia or New Zealand, particularly if you'll be in different states with different tax percentages.  And then car rental, well, that's one situation in which the final price may end up being quite a bit higher than the daily rate that's quoted.  It's quite annoying the first time you encounter it.

 

But at least it's rare for us to be charged for credit card use.   

 

I'm not surprised Aldi charges for credit card use.  They charge for plastic or paper bags, and are a pretty basic operation.  But their prices are great, and the quality's usually pretty good, so I'm not complaining!

 

Anyway, thanks for the information.  Europe does sales tax the way we do it in the U.S., so I just assumed other countries/continents did it the same way! 

 

I'll assume NZ includes the tax in the advertised price too.

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I was talking about cruise lines, as in Princess, Celebrity etc, public Ferries Don’t and I can’t say for sightseeing boats, but remember if they are going to charge it they have to declare it before you pay. Some travel agents also charge it.

 

many service stations advertise on the fuel pump that they will add it, but I can’t remember last time they added it to mine, the only time I get hit with it regularly is Aldi and when I book a cruise, but it’s rare for me to use a credit card anyway opting for the debit card instead.

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Yesterday, while ordering coffee at a cafe at a local shopping centre, I noticed a sign saying they MAY charge a credit card fee. I was tempted to use my credit card to see of they did, but used my debit card as per usual.

 

 

Leigh

 

 

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20 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I'm not surprised Aldi charges for credit card use.  They charge for plastic or paper bags, and are a pretty basic operation.  But their prices are great, and the quality's usually pretty good, so I'm not complaining!

Most super markets in Australia do not provide bags for your shopping and some other shops don't either. It is a case of taking your own bags to pack your shopping in or paying for them like at Aldi. I always have two in my handbag to use and there are others in my car. 

 

Leigh

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24 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Most super markets in Australia do not provide bags for your shopping and some other shops don't either. It is a case of taking your own bags to pack your shopping in or paying for them like at Aldi. I always have two in my handbag to use and there are others in my car. 

 

Leigh

Not many places still giving out bags for free, Rivers (clothing store for visitors info) did until about two weeks ago, and they were a good thick plastic that you could use over and over again.

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The credit card surcharge is starting to annoy me. We went to a restaurant in Sydney city last week and when the bill came it had a line on it showing the credit card surcharge. That's the first time I've seen that!😡

Edited by OzKiwiJJ
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1 hour ago, GUT2407 said:

Not many places still giving out bags for free, Rivers (clothing store for visitors info) did until about two weeks ago, and they were a good thick plastic that you could use over and over again.

I had a bag given to me yesterday at a $2 shop which surprised me. Yes the Rivers bags could be reused many times. 

 

Leigh

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1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The credit card surcharge is starting to annoy me. We went to a restaurant in Sydney city last week and when the bill came it had a line on it showing the credit card surcharge. That's the first time I've seen that!😡

Me too,  we tend to use our Visa debit cards more now than our credit cards because of the surcharge.  We had lunch at a Greek restaurant for our son's 40th recently. There were 9 adults and 4 children.  Of course there was no split bill allowed, so son's father in law said he would put the bill on his credit card. I looked at the bill to check how much we owed him and it had a line with the CC surcharge too. It was the first time I recall seeing it on a restaurant bill.

 

Leigh

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We've always been in the habit of rounding up the bills, ie adding a small tip (assuming the service is decent) but when I see credit card surcharges or weekend surcharges in restaurants I don't round up. 

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3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We've always been in the habit of rounding up the bills, ie adding a small tip (assuming the service is decent) but when I see credit card surcharges or weekend surcharges in restaurants I don't round up. 

Agree, and now penalty rates have been done away with in so many industries I am not sure how they remotely justify it. But I guess any excuse to grab a few extra dollars.

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2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We've always been in the habit of rounding up the bills, ie adding a small tip (assuming the service is decent) but when I see credit card surcharges or weekend surcharges in restaurants I don't round up. 

We have always rounded up the bill for restaurants/cafes and taxis (when we use them). Weekend surcharges are another thing which annoys me and as Mr GUT pointed out with the the doing away of penalty rates, there is no need for the weekend/public holiday surcharge. 

 

Leigh

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34 minutes ago, possum52 said:

We have always rounded up the bill for restaurants/cafes and taxis (when we use them). Weekend surcharges are another thing which annoys me and as Mr GUT pointed out with the the doing away of penalty rates, there is no need for the weekend/public holiday surcharge. 

 

Leigh

Indeed one of the arguments for getting rid of penalty rates in the hospitality industry was so they could do away with surcharges, so I’d be likely to call out anywhere that added them.

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16 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

I was talking about cruise lines, as in Princess, Celebrity etc, public Ferries Don’t and I can’t say for sightseeing boats, but remember if they are going to charge it they have to declare it before you pay. Some travel agents also charge it.

 

 

I didn't know any cruise lines charged for credit card use.  The two we use don't.  But one of the two offers us a monetary incentive (forget the percentage amount, maybe 1.5%?) to pay using electronic transfer from our bank to theirs to pay for the cruise. If you use a card, there's no fee, either for use of the card to pay for the cruise or for purchases on board the ship.

 

But maybe the cruise lines that charge a fee only charge Australians; who knows.  I would imagine there could be some differences from country to country. 

 

As for bags being handed out for free, it's all over the board in the U.S.  If I want to buy a bag in my county, it's 5 U.S. cents, with part kept by the vendor, and the rest going to the county. The goal, of course, is to reduce plastic bags.  Most of us have a bag or two in our car or purse.  It took some getting used to, but now it's no big deal.

 

And yes, I did read recently that some Aus restaurants charge extra on weekend, which seems a bit odd to me. 

Edited by IWantToLiveOverTheSea
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Te weekend surcharge started when hospitality industry still had penalty rates, ie staff got paid extra to work weekends, public holidays, night shift etc, up to 2.5 times the normal pay, so it could be a hefty penalty to businesses trading then, many industries penalty rates are now a thing of the past, but the business continue to charge extra

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