Cash or Card? Countries where you still need cash.

[SYD]

There were reports upthread of excessive surcharges for using debit card in NZ. Spent last weekend in Auckland, didn't use any cash and was not hit up with a surcharge anywhere I paid by card (most places were card only venues).

If they’re card only, they’re probably not allowed to charge a surcharge and so just build the fee into their prices.

Probably 50% of places we went to over a week in AKL and Bay of Islands had surcharges. Some quite hefty ~3%.

 

[Lynda2475]

The only places I went that took cash were the supermarket and museum and no surcharge there either. Noting I used the Macquarie debit card and not a credit card.

The orphan NZ$20 note from a work trip in 2015 remains unused in the travel wallet.

 

[Rich]

The orphan NZ$20 note from a work trip in 2015 remains unused in the travel wallet.

We returned from Auckland on the weekend. The left over cash (from Cook Islands) was used on duty free booze with the balance on a card. It is never worth buying duty free in MEL so that is our standard practice with foreign currency anywhere we return from.