NZ Costs!

I’m about to go on a bit of a rant. You see – I feel like I’m being nickel and dimed to death. Though really I can only be dimed to death here in NZ. See, they’ve done away with the nickel. Who knows how long ago they did away with the penny, but when I arrived a few short months ago NZ was in the process of changing its change. For the better – they say. This may be true – as the new coins are a bit more logical in their size/weight vs. value. There are $1 and $2 coins as well as 50, 20 and 10 cent pieces now. Prices are rounded up or down at the cash drawer, to the nearest 10 cents. Being new, I’m able to make the shift rather easily. That’s not what has me fired up.

It’s the fees and pricing of things that has me rather peeved. The ones that gets me the most are the bank fees. For example, there are fees every time one uses a debit card (called EFTPOS here. Really. People say “Is that EFTPOS or credit?” when you pull out a card to pay for something. EFTPOS stands for Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale). That fee depends on the type of bank account (or credit union account) one has. With the bank I chose it’s 30 cents per EFTPOS transaction. ATM withdrawal = 50 cents. Withdrawals in person at bank = $1. Discussing issues on the phone with a bank representative = $1. Text banking (balance request via cell phone – 5 free, then 50 cents each after that/month). The list goes on and on… And I chose the bank that seemed to have the lowest fees, and was actually a NZ owned bank – as most of the ones here are owned by Australian based banks. Supporting the local economy, you know…

The internet is the same. For high speed broadband (what I called DSL via the phone lines in the US) costs based on the volume of upload/download usage. If you go over your predicted amount, the service slows down to dial-up speeds for the duration of the month – unless of course you upgrade to the next increment of service.

200MB per month = $29.95

1GB per month = $39.95

5GB per month = $49.95

10GB per month = $59.95

Who knows how much one is going to use?

I suppose, on the good side, these crazy fees have lead to some rather funny commercials. One of my favorites has an elementary school teacher calling her kids together in the school yard. Each has a hoola hoop. “Now what I want you to do,” she instructs her students “is to tell me how many minutes you are going to use your hoola hoops each month for the next two years.” The looks of confusion on their faces are precious – especially as they try to do the math. “If you guess over, you will be charged. If you guess under, well then that’s just a waste, isn’t it.” This one is for a new flexibly priced mobile phone service.

Another ad that I particularly like is for a new fixed-fee bank account. It shows people at random shops buying things, with others coming by while they are still at the cash drawer to take their small cut of the purchase. A person buys a coffee, then someone comes over and takes a sip. “Hmm, that’s quite good,” comments the intruder. Someone buys a new book, only to have someone come rip a few pages out of the book, before it gets put in the bag. A guy buys flowers, but not without someone coming to snag a few from his bouquet, before he leaves the florist… It’s quite funny, and really gets at the point of how one feels paying a bit here and there. Getting dimed to death.

Lastly, just because I find it so amusing, I wanted to share one of my favorite commercials with you. (Click here) The brand apparently has a history of really creative and funny ads, many of which you can find on the internet, if you are so inclined…

Meanwhile, you owe me 32 cents for taking the time to read this.

More another day...

Bryan