Traditional banking hours are from 9am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday, however many banks located in indoor shopping malls are open for basic services on late nights and at weekends.
ATM machines are common and prevalent in most shopping centres that larger than a dozen shops. They mostly attached to banks, but even where there are no banks, there are often standalone ATMs, or sometimes ATMs inside service stations or convenience stores.
New Zealand has the highest debit card use per head of the population in the world. Debit card terminals at point of sale (called EFTPOS) are almost universal, and even many mobile salespeople provide them. You will rarely find minimum spend limits on electronic transactions, but some smaller retailers disable the credit card function on them. You can also get cash out on debit card point of sale transactions. It would be quite conceivable to travel through New Zealand and use very little cash indeed. Although if camping or going into remote areas, you would use a lot more cash than if just staying in cities.
The major banks are:
• Bank of New Zealand
• National Bank
• ANZ
• ASB Bank
• Westpac
• Kiwi Bank
