FINANCIAL PRODUCT

ANZ Visa Debit Card ANZ On the way

ANZ customers are about to get a new kind of card – a Visa card that acts like an eftpos card but can be used to make online purchases. Writing that three years’ ago would have been to chronicle a mini-payments revolution. Today, it signals ANZ coming into line with all the other major banks – National Bank included – which offer the cards. They will be free to users of some accounts – including the $5 a month Everyday account – which is a policy copied from the National Bank, which already offers a Visa Debit card without an annual fee with its $5 a month Freedom account. The annual fee for everyone else is $10.

Buying things online is now as ordinary as going to a shop, more so for some of us. It was about time ANZ joined that. The final stages in the merger with National Bank, which will see the green bank branding steadily vanish, are seeing the product ranges of the two banks streamlined. This appears to be part of that. The ANZ Visa debit card also allows for ‘‘contactless’’ payments for sums under $80 with no signature where contactless payments are accepted, though lately, it’s become apparent that there are locations that ordinary credit cards are accepted with no PIN authorisation for small payments under $80.

Contactless payments and spending online make life easier and spending on wants, not needs, much easier. Also, dismiss from your head any idea the cards is ‘‘yours’’. It is not. It always belongs to the bank. The terms and conditions are a legal contract you need to read, especially the duties on you to keep the card safe and secure.

It’s worked for many National Bank customers, so there’s no reason ANZ customers shouldn’t get the benefits, and the bank reap the extra fees.

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