Eftpos upgrade in April
More shops are expected to start supporting contactless card payments from April, when about a third of the country’s eftpos terminals are due to be upgraded or replaced.
About 10,000 eftpos terminals will need to be swapped out and about another 30,000 upgraded with newer software to meet security requirements required by the United States-based PCI Security Council, according to eftpos network operator Paymark.
Bradley Gerdis, managing director of eftpos company Smartpay, said the security enhancements themselves wouldn’t be obvious to shops or consumers.
But the upgrade to newer software means all eftpos terminals will need to be capable of supporting contactless card payments such as Paypass and Paywave that don’t require inserting or swiping a bank card.
Retailers wouldn’t have to turn on the contactless feature.
But given all retailers would have the option of doing so, ‘‘it stands to reason’’ more would, Gerdis said.
‘‘The more retailers have the capability, the more consumers come to expect it, because it is terrifically convenient.’’
Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford said retailers don’t incur fees if customers pay by standard eftpos, but face average fees of about 1 per cent on the value of sales if customers use contactless cards.
Harford said the fees could be as high as 1.7 per cent, or even 2 per cent, and were a huge issue for retailers. ‘‘That is a pretty big disincentive to turn the feature on.’’