I’m hoping that this article will save you the 45 minutes of research I just had to do.

• Do you have clients or customers based outside of New Zealand?
• Do you want to know the easiest, cheapest way for those non-NZ customers to pay you into your New Zealand bank account?

That’s exactly what I wanted to find out.

I found many options, most of which I’d never heard of.  But one brand kept coming up again and again: PayPal.

I found lots of criticisms, but it is probably the #1 payment service in the world, so let’s just go with that.

But I’m worried my profit will be whittled away with fees.

My next mission was to find out what fees will I be charged:

1. For the transaction?
2. For currency conversion from US dollars to NZ dollars?
3. For withdrawing the funds from my PayPal account into my New Zealand bank account?
4. For receiving the funds into my New Zealand bank account? Will my NZ bank charge me?

You’d think I’d easily find the answers to these questions on PayPal’s website. Sadly, no, that is not the case.

1. What fees will I be charged for the transaction?

• 3.4% + $0.30 USD

Source: PayPal Website

2. What fees will I be charged for currency conversion from US dollars to NZ dollars?

• 2.5%

Source: PayPal Website

3. What fees will I be charged for withdrawing the funds from my PayPal account into my New Zealand bank account?

• $1.00 for amounts below NZ$150
• Free for amounts above NZ$150

Source: Helium.com

4. What fees will my bank charge me for receiving the funds into my New Zealand bank account?

• Zero. (I’m guessing. If I’m wrong, please correct me in the comments below)
• But it can take 6 – 8 days to arrive

Example #1: US$100 transaction

1. Transaction Fee: 3.4% x US$100 = US$3.40 + US$0.30
2. Currency Conversion: 2.5 % x US$100 = US$2.50
3. Withdrawal Fee: US$1.00 because US$100 = NZ$135 which is below the NZ$150 threshold
4. Total PayPal Fees: US$7.20 = NZ$9.80 (which is a whopping 10% of the clients invoice!)

Example #2: US$200 transaction

1. Transaction Fee: 3.4% x US$200 = US$6.80 + US$0.30
2. Currency Conversion: 2.5 % x US$200 = US$5.00
3. Withdrawal Fee: Free because US$200 = NZ$270 which is over the NZ$150 threshold
4. Total PayPal Fees: US$12.10 = NZ$16.47 (which is 8.2% of the clients invoice)

Here’s a cool world currency calculator if you want to do your own calculations.

Recommendations:

• Wait until you have more than NZ$150 in your PayPal account before you withdraw the funds into your New Zealand bank account

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• Do you want to sell your products online?
• Do you want to be able to accept credit card payments?
• Want to avoid spending the big bucks on getting your website redesigned with ecommerce functionality?
• Just want to provide a simple “Buy Now” button for your customers?

If so, you’re in luck, because today I have been researching all the different credit card transaction processing companies in NZ for a client, and thought you might like to know what I’ve found.

1. PayPal

Internationally recognised, always updating and improving their code and security. Polished.

But: You have to withdraw funds from your PayPal bank account manually, and they reserve the right to charge a fee to send it to a non-US bank account (they don’t tell you what the fee will be).

Costs:

• Setup: Free
• Monthly Fee: Free
• Transaction Fees: 3.4% + $0.45 (Eg $500.00 x 0.034 + 0.45 = $17.45)

2. Paymate

Australian based with a decent NZ presence. I’ve been using them for 3 years. Pretty basic, but good.

Bonus: The funds are deposited straight into your bank account.

Costs:

• Setup: Free
• Monthly Fee: Free
• Transaction Fees: 3.0% + $0.50 (Eg $500.00 x 0.03 + 0.50 = $15.50)

3. Payment Express

NZ standard for online Credit Card processing. Website a little hard to understand. (Formerly called “DPS – Direct Payment Solutions”)

Costs:

• Setup: $150.00
• Monthly Fee: $ 50/month
• Transaction Fees: 100 free transactions a month

4. Eway

Polished website.  Very good price.

Costs:

• Setup: Free (subject to change, but it probably won’t)
• Monthly Fee: $25/month
• Transaction Fees: $0.40 per transaction
• Bonus Offer: Put their logo on your websites home page for a $100 credit (subject to change, but it probably won’t)

5. Paystation

Looks ok.  Lowest monthly cost.

Costs:

• Setup: $200.00
• Monthly Fee: $15/month minimum
• Transaction Fees: $0.10 per transaction

6. ZipZap

Website is a bit crap and hard to understand their pricing structure.

Costs:

• Unknown. I didn’t stay long enough to find out.

7. Super Secure

Crap website put me off completely.

Costs:

• Unknown. I didn’t stay long enough to find out.

8. Flow2Cash

I’m bored. Can’t be bothered looking closely.

9. Eftpos New Zealand Limited

No pricing on their website. That is so lame. No, I won’t call your friendly customer service team.

10. NZ Banks: Eg ASB

As far as I can tell, they need you to sign up with a payment gateway anyway so I don’t see why anyone would want to use a NZ bank for their ecommerce…

Have you used any of these companies? Tell your story.

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8 Essential Steps:

1. Define the most important action that you want the audience to take. Is it filling in an enquiry form? Call your toll free number? Download an information pack?
2. Make it dead easy for them to take that action. 1 click or 2 clicks. Not 5 clicks
3. Make your forms super short. Ask for essential information only. Not their age, not their gender, not even their address (if you aren’t posting them something, don’t ask for it). And it doesn’t matter if some of your form field aren’t compulsory, if it looks too long it will turn people away
4. Ensure your code is search engine friendly:
   • Clean urls like “this-is-a-page-about-how-to-do-stuff.html” rather than “index.php?ss=2&s=abc”
   • Clean html code, eg use H1, H2, H3 tags instead of heavily formatted paragraph tags
5. A stripped down CMS for commonly updated content (like blog entries, articles, products). Lock down other pages so you’re not tempted to wreck them with crazy fonts and colours
6. “Write for the web” by formatting all your content with headings, sub-headings, short paragraphs (none more than 3 sentences), bullet points, numbered lists, and internal hyperlinks
7. Follow usability guidelines, such as:
   • Hyperlinks that look link hyperlinks. Buttons that look like buttons
   • Breadcrumbs so when the users deep-link they can quickly figure out where they are
   • Disable the hyperlink in the navigation if the user is already on that page
   • And just about everything else website usability guru Jacob Nielsen recommends
8. Choose a web site developer who knows about all this stuff

Other Important Things

1. Ensure all your navigation is in one place (preferably displayed vertically on the left so it can scale as your website grows)
2. Don’t have any animation or moving images at all. It distracts the user from completing their task

Do you need help building a website that generates business for you?

Contact us today or book a free 45min consultation now

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