How to pay suppliers in New Zealand dollars

Key takeaways

• 2024 was the third busiest year for UK imports from New Zealand, especially in professional services. It’s an increasingly popular region supplying diverse goods and services, but paying suppliers there can be complicated.

• Traditional methods (like SWIFT) are expensive and slow, especially when compared to modern multi-currency platforms.

• Airwallex puts you in control of your currency conversion and your New Zealand dollars with a local account. You can buy NZD, hold it, and pay suppliers at speed and for a low cost.

UK imports from New Zealand have steadily increased since the millennium, up over 59% since 2000. Growth in services imports has outstripped goods in that time, which suggests a wider range of businesses are trading with New Zealand.¹ (Our three most-imported goods are all in food and drink.²)

If your company is one of the growing number working with suppliers in New Zealand, you’re no doubt aware of the complexity involved in paying them.

In this article, we explain the most popular ways to pay suppliers in New Zealand, key pitfalls and challenges to consider, and practical advice for protecting your costs and keeping your suppliers happy.

Four ways to pay suppliers in New Zealand dollars

You’ve got a few options for paying your Kiwi suppliers, each with their own set of benefits and drawbacks. We’ve outlined the four main methods you can use in the table below, as well as a balanced take on their merits.

You might work with a supplier that bills in a different currency. As an example, a Kiwi business that works with lots of American companies might bill in USD by default. In this case, all the same points as above still apply – just replace NZD with USD.

Using Airwallex to pay suppliers in New Zealand dollars

The cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to pay your NZ suppliers is with a multi-currency platform like Airwallex. You get the speed and cost benefits of using local payment rails, without the administrative complexity of setting up a New Zealand entity.

In your Airwallex Global Account, you can hold 20+ currencies at once – including New Zealand dollars. The beauty of this is in the flexibility it gives you. You can convert GBP to NZD at the ideal time for you at the mid-market rate (plus our markup of just 0.5%), then hold it in your account to get the most dollars for your pounds.

Alongside our Global Account and low-cost FX using the mid-market exchange rate, your Airwallex account also offers useful features like:

• Spend management, including purchase orders, bill pay, and approval processes.

• Multi-currency corporate cards, for those international trips and meetings.

• A billing (subscriptions, recurring payments, and invoices) and payment acceptance engine.

Paying New Zealand suppliers from the UK: practical considerations

New Zealand might not be the UK’s biggest trade partner, but it’s becoming more prominent. In terms of imports, it’s ahead of countries like Qatar and Argentina and has rebounded healthily from the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2024, UK imports of services from New Zealand grew by 175%.¹

Even if you aren’t working with Kiwi suppliers right now, it should at least be on your radar. Some key considerations:

• Your suppliers in New Zealand are 12 hours ahead of us. If you pay an invoice at the last minute in the UK, it’ll already be late in New Zealand.

• National holidays can lead to delayed payments and slower communication. As well as its 11 public holidays, each of New Zealand’s regions also has its own anniversary day.

• If you’re sending a payment using SWIFT, you’ll need to account for the time it takes to settle. The date you send a payment is irrelevant compared to the date your supplier receives it.

• You’ll also need to account for the total cost of a payment, not just the invoiced amount. For example, including transfer fees, currency conversion fees (and any gains/losses incurred), and other product fees. Together, these costs can turn a fair deal into an expensive one.

Why New Zealand suppliers prefer to be paid in NZD

There’s one very obvious reason why a supplier would bill in NZD: Because that’s their local currency! Most of their outgoings are in NZD, so it makes sense that they want NZD coming into the business and not another currency that they need to convert.

Other reasons they’re choosing to get paid in NZD include:

• Billing in NZD puts the FX risk onto you, as the client, rather than them potentially getting paid different amounts each month.

• A New Zealand business that only gets paid in NZD has a much easier financial year-end. No FX gains and losses to compute or foreign transactions to reconcile.

• Depending on the supplier relationship, they might have a strong negotiating position. If they are delivering a specialised service, they can push back on parts of the contract – including the billing currency.

Bank details required for NZD payments

Depending on the payment method you choose, you’ll need to know some or all of the following identifiers for your New Zealander suppliers’ bank account.

You might also be asked to provide a clearing code. If so, use the first six digits of the domestic account number (i.e. the bank and branch identifier).

To make it extra clear: New Zealand hasn’t adopted IBAN. Instead, NZD accounts use foreign currency account numbers for receiving international payments.

Managing FX costs when paying in NZD

Currency conversion is the elephant in the room. Many traditional payment methods won’t explicitly tell you the fees involved and they can stack up, eventually costing you a significant margin on top of your payment. The only thing worse than an expensive transfer is an expensive transfer without a clear breakdown of fees.

The closer you are to the conversion, the more control you have. Think of it this way: When you send a SWIFT payment, you’re asking the bank (or its intermediaries) to convert your currency at some point in the coming days. The whole process is opaque at best. If you book your own conversion and hold the funds in a multi-currency account, you can time it so you know the exact costs and exchange rate involved.

You can also use FX tools like forward contracts (reserving an exchange rate into the future) and stop-limit orders (automatically converting your money when the exchange rate reaches a high or low point).

This is why platforms like Airwallex are so powerful for UK businesses. We want to put the power back in your hands, so you can run your finances with unadulterated control.

Common issues when paying suppliers in New Zealand dollars

If you’re worried about mistakes and errors when you send money to New Zealand, we’ve got good news: The most common ones are easy to avoid.

Human error is often to blame with failed payments, so triple-check you’ve entered all the details correctly – value, name, account numbers. One digit out of place and you could face long delays.

Paying in NZD is the cheapest way to pay an NZD invoice, but you need a multi-currency platform (like Airwallex) or a local bank account to do that. If you’re stuck with sending GBP, you could be paying more than necessary.

Make sure your address for a SWIFT transfer isn’t a PO Box. BNZ says payments using these addresses may be held or rejected.³

Lastly, remember that your supplier in New Zealand is already starting their workweek when you’re getting ready for bed on Sunday. A 12 hour time difference can complicate your payment schedule and even lead to an accidental late payment.

A quick and affordable way to pay suppliers in New Zealand

In 2026, you’ve just as much reason to work with a supplier in New Zealand as one in Newcastle. Global trade with our Kiwi cousins, especially in the growing services sector, is putting more New Zealand suppliers in touch with UK businesses.

Receiving your first invoice in New Zealand dollars can be a bit daunting, but, with a platform like Airwallex, it’s as easy as paying any other bill.

With Airwallex, you’re completely in charge of your FX and cross-border transfers. You decide when to convert currency, with access to mid-market exchange rates at only 0.5% in fees, and then you can hold your NZD balance until you need to use it.

Take control of your global supply chain and pay every bill like you’re a local.

FAQs

Do New Zealand suppliers require payment in NZD?

You should expect most New Zealand suppliers to bill in New Zealand dollars, but it’s not a legal requirement. As long as both businesses agree, they can charge in any currency they like. Some New Zealand businesses might choose to bill in USD or GBP, for example, but it will depend on individual circumstances.

How long do NZD payments from the UK usually take?

The settlement time on your NZD payments from the UK will depend on the payment method you choose. SWIFT transfers can take several business days or even up to a week. Using a cross-border payments platform like Airwallex, your payment can arrive almost instantly as these platforms use local rails.

Is it cheaper to pay suppliers in NZD or GBP?

Sending GBP and letting your bank (or their intermediaries) handle FX can lead to paying hidden fees and high margins. If you can control currency conversion (e.g. when you buy/at what exchange rate), it’ll be cheaper to pay in NZD. Platforms like Airwallex can do this, letting you access mid-market FX rates, as well as NZD account details to hold currency for future use.

What causes NZD payments to be delayed or fail?

Sending a payment to New Zealand can fail for simple (e.g. entering the wrong account number) or slightly more nuanced reasons. For example, Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) warns that international payments sent by a payor using a PO Box address risk being held or rejected. A mix of diligence and research will help you avoid these issues.

Can UK businesses hold and pay NZD without a New Zealand bank account?

Yes, it’s possible to hold and send NZD from the UK with a multi-currency platform like Airwallex. You can open accounts in 20+ countries and use them to hold, send, and receive the local currency. The multi-currency platform works as a kind of global treasury account and issues virtual IBANs for customer accounts, so your money is segregated safely.

Sources and references

1. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/datasets/uktotaltradeallcountriesseasonallyadjusted

2. https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-country/gbr/partner/nzl

3. https://www.bnz.co.nz/support/international/payments/made-to-new-zealand