New Zealand cards likely to hit 1.8% growth in 2026 as fee caps spur use

Rewards, discounts, and flexible payment schemes.

New Zealand’s credit and charge card payments market are expected to be valued at $32.1b (NZ$55.1b) in 2026, expanding by 1.8% year-on-year (YoY), according to estimates from data and analytics company GlobalData.

This is faster than the 0.8% YoY growth recorded in 2025, when the market was valued at $31.5b.

“Credit and charge card payments in New Zealand are poised for steady growth over the next five years, underpinned by the expanding e-commerce adoption, a well-developed payment infrastructure, attractive rewards and installment offers and robust regulatory support,” said Kartik Challa, senior banking and payments analyst at GlobalData.

Rewards, discounts, and flexible payment schemes play a key role in driving the credit and charge card usage in New Zealand, GlobalData said.

New Zealand has one of the highest numbers of point-of-sale (POS) terminals per million inhabitants in the Asia Pacific region, at 43,359 in 2025. This is higher than in Australia (40,055), China (36,578), Hong Kong (27,992) and Japan (21,966).

The country also recently revised interchange fees for domestic and international payment cards. Swiped and inserted debit cards have no fees, whilst credit card transaction fees are capped at 0.3% for in-person and 0.7% for online purchases.