New Zealand - NZ Dollar - Currency Guide

General Currency Info - NZ Dollar

The New Zealand dollar is informally called the ‘kiwi’ by foreign exchange traders and analysts due to the kiwi bird, which is native to New Zealand, being something of a national symbol for the country. The kiwi bird is also depicted on New Zealand’s one-dollar coin.

Although the New Zealand dollar is considered one of the eight FX ‘majors’, it is actually only the world’s eleventh most traded currency. Further to the other seven majors – the US dollar, euro, yen, pound, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and Swiss franc – the New Zealand dollar also falls behind the Mexican peso, the Chinese yuan and the Swedish krona in its share of the foreign exchange market (around 2%). The currencies of China and Mexico are not considered majors due to their emerging market status, while the krona’s market share has only exceeded that of the New Zealand dollar fairly recently (in 2016, according to the Bank for International Settlements) and is therefore not yet considered ahead of New Zealand’s currency.

In the past two decades, the New Zealand dollar’s lowest value against the US dollar occurred in October 2000 when the NZD/USD exchange rate traded at just 0.3901. The currency’s two-decade high occurred in August 2011 when NZD/USD reached 0.8842.

Among the majors, the New Zealand dollar is considered a riskier currency, which means that its value will fall against the larger majors (especially JPY, USD, CHF, GBP and EUR) during periods of economic uncertainty or when global geopolitical risk is elevated, or during bouts of high market volatility.

NZD News, Forecasts and Trends

Although New Zealand has nearly eliminated COVID-19 and wound back restrictions, its international borders are likely to be closed until 2021. This means the economy will be slower to rebound as its reliance on tourism outweighs that of major counterparts. Despite the New Zealand economy’s reliance on tourism, the NZD has been well supported by positive risk sentiment, higher NZ–US short term yields and robust commodity prices.

For more NZD currency market forecasts you can read the full article NZ Dollar Forecasts. The above interactive chart shows the USD to NZD exchange rate, trend and recent alerts for the last 90 days.

Travel, Currency and Money saving tips for New Zealand

New Zealand is a popular destination and is inexpensive and offers a lot of ways to save money. The locals are friendly and helpful. Getting around by bus is also fairly cheap, however eating out can be expensive so budget travelers may want to learn to cook. Getting around with flights is also fairly expensive as there is not much competition among airlines.

Credit cards are accepted across the country and ATMs are frequently available in cities and towns, though some of New Zealand's highlights are in its beautiful countryside. If you prefer not to carry your main credit card on you at all times a Prepaid Travel Card can be useful to purchase before arrival.

Travel money for New Zealand

Save money and time by Ordering your NZ Dollars online from Travelex, you get better rates and can pick up the NZD cash locally or even on travel day at the airport.

Another popular option is to use a Pre-paid Travel Card. Your Debit/Credit Card provider will charge you 2% from market mid-rate, but your bank may also charge an extra 3% as an “Overseas Transaction Charge” plus “Overseas ATM” fees for withdrawing cash.

For card purchases if offered a choice of currencies always select to Pay in NZ Dollars otherwise you may get much worst exchange rates.

Sending money to New Zealand

When searching around for information on how to get a good exchange rate when sending money to New Zealand you need to start with finding out the latest NZ Dollar exchange rate for foreign-transfers, which can be very different to the wholesale rate.

Then compare your bank's exchange rates to several licensed FX providers exchange rate and fees to see how much you can save - we make that calculation easy in the below table.

Get a better deal for foreign transfers to New Zealand

When sending money to New Zealand it’s important to compare your bank’s rates & fees with those we have negotiated with our partner money transfer providers. To get a better deal you should follow these 4 simple steps :

1. Open an account with a BER reviewed FX provider (id docs may be required)
2. You specify the local or NZ Dollar amount you want to transfer
3. Make a local currency domestic transfer for the requested amount to the provider's bank account in your country
4. Once your funds are received by the provider the converted NZD amount will be transfered to the recipient account you specify in New Zealand.

Use the above Send to NZ Dollars calculator to compare the exchange rates of FX specialist providers rates versus your bank's standard rates you can hopefully save around 5% and maybe more - end result is more NZ Dollars deposited into the recipient bank account and less margins and fees kept by the banks!