The recent commerce commission settlement and new card agreement allows for merchants to apply a surcharge with immediate effect under the following guidelines:

- the surcharge must bear a reasonable relationship to your costs in accepting VISA and MasterCard and can either be a flat fee or a percentage fee

- you must clearly display, close to the point of sale, your surcharge policy using display notices, signs or decals (at minimum Arial 10 point font) and you must disclose the surcharge at the point of sale prior to completing the transaction giving the customer the opportunity to cancel

- any surcharge must be processed as part of the total transaction and not collected separately

- you cannot describe the surcharge as a charge imposed by VISA or MasterCard or any financial institution

Please be aware that the commerce commission is watching the setting of these fees in the interest of the consumer as per their press release here.