I am pleased to see discussion among law enforcement and government about pay wave / tap and go technology with police calling for it to be optional. Customers need to have the option to disable Paywave / tap and go facilities on their cards.
The banks are awful when it comes to card fraud. I have experienced this myself – with the ANZ bank.
While my own experience related to card fraud through a website, the area of the ANZ Bank that manages it is the same as handles Paywave fraud claims.
In my own case, a customer used a website run by one of my businesses to make a purchase of $3,000. Payment was via credit card. The site itself does not handle payment – instead, it links to ANZ E-Gate, which processes and verifies payment. It is only when ANZ E-Gate returns ANZ approval that the transaction can proceed.
The good were shopped. We were paid.
A couple of weeks later the ANZ took the funds out of our account and advised the card had been stolen. Today, more than a year on, we are in a losing argument with the ANZ Bank. They say it is my responsibility even though they completely handled and managed the payment including verifying the card and advising us it was approved.
The experience fuels my distrust for the banks, the ANZ especially.
I have been with the ANZ for more than thirty years. I am now looking to move all my business elsewhere as a result of their poor handling of this matter.
I spent some time on the phone with my bank the other day, Mark – St George. At the end of the transaction, I undertook a short survey about customer service. The first question was something like: “As a result of the service you received from xxxxxx, how likely would you be to recommend St George Bank?”
This is a poorly structured market research question, as it’s asking me about two different things – the quality of service I received from a specific and whether or not it would influence me to recommend St George bank.
I provided positive feedback about that specific transaction with xxxx, but then told the recording system that there was no way that I would recommend St George Bank to anyone. Not because they had done anything in particular but because my perception is that all of the major banks are very much the same – none of them provides cost-effective quality in products and services. They are focussed on making money, money and money, not on their customers.
So, I can understand your disappointment with ANZ but I don’t believe that you will experience service that’s any better anywhere else. Nevertheless, I wish you luck.
Megan I had the same sort of thing with NAB. I gave them 0 for everything and with in a few days I had a Manager contact me about an issue I have had for about 2 years. I am still waiting for confirmation that the issue is resolved. I also said their was nothing wrong with the particular staff member who was just a call centre worker who passes your problems up the line and generally do their best to help. Also had an issue with Tyro. Customer by coincidence spent exactly the same amount on different items on two consecutive days. I was asked to verify that I had not double charged the customer. It was quite a rigmarole to satisfy them.
Our eftpos is now through Suncorp and we have chosen to have our Paywave functionality turned off due to increased use of stolen cards. So many customers ask to just paywave but not having it is no issue at all.
I still have the paywave function enabled on our Tyro terminals, although I’m not a fan of this (so called) “technology”
Are people THAT time poor, that they can’t put in a PIN number to pay for things?????
@subaru
It’s easier and quicker for everyone to use paywave. It boggles my mind that anyone would not offer this – places where there are high volume, low value transactions should have paywave. Places that don’t I’ll rarely go back to.
i had a group of federal police came in to our shop looking for cctv footage of customer fraud, after long talks i found out the customer have been shopping free in the shopping centre in 1 hour , luckily i told them i don’t do pay wave.
The other issue with Paywave is transactions are treated as credit card transactions so you pay credit card merchant fees on paywave transactions. When those fees on premium credit cards can be as high as 2% that works out to be a significant difference in costs to the merchant. Any transaction over $6.70 and I am worse off using paywave vs eftpos with a pin, and with 5,500 eftpos (not credit) transactions a month that adds up.
As to the time saving factor, the extra 2 or 3 seconds is neither here nor there, and i know we will never again have to go through the hassles of sorting out transactions that have been done with stolen cards.
Neil, you may change your mind when your card gets stolen!
Paywave reduces opportunities for us – for example, upsetting to cash out that can be beneficial on our fees.
This is an issue for our industry as businesses like coffee shops promote this payment. The different is the gross profit on a coffee at $4 is $3.50 yet the gross profit on $4 worth of newspapers/magazines is $1. When you take out the credit card fee it is quite a high percentage of your profit. We offer paywave but not for any gambling or Opal as they are our least profitable items.
Banks are really ripping us off with charges. My Westpac account used to work as a debit card however due to WBC closing in our town I changed to ANZ and I now have to press credit to access funds in my Cheque account so ANZ will be getting fees and charges off everyone down the line.
Correction” Higher Fees”
@Peter but if my card is stolen the bank is responsible for fixing it.
I’ve had it happen, they had the money back to me within a week. Two chats to my bank and a fax had the whole thing sorted.
After a lifetime in the technology game I know things, technology is fantastic and some things are just not suited to that technology gain. Paywave is the latter, its dangerous and not necessary. Its a matter of time before the legislators step in to reduce or remove it, but it will happen.
Neil the bank didnt repay the money its covered by VISA/Mastecard who own the paywave technology. Why would they repay it? Because their poaching customers of EFTPOS with chipped debit cards. Why are they repaying it? Because if customers start losing money due to the theft of cards that dont require a pin customers will dump paywave and go back to using pin only debit cards and EFTPOS wins. How do they pay for it? By charging merchants credit card fees for debit card transactions. Dont be fooled, theres no free lunches on a finite Planet
If you want to know how much the banks care about you losing money heres a small example. On Tuesday my wife deposited several thousand cash at a Westpac branch. The notes all went through a counting machine, one $10 note went in whole but only 2/3 of it came out the other end. The teller wouldn’t look for the other 1/3 nor would the bank accept it (got told to send it to the reserve bank) so left her phone number. Sure enough half an hour latter got a call, the machine had decided to spit out the rest of the note. Not great customer service.
@Steve Fair point, but I don’t use my debit card for anything (it doesn’t earn points so I use my CC) so the fees would be there anyway.
I guess I’m looking at this from a consumer point of view. The costs of processing the transaction aren’t visible to me and even if it’s a 2% charge I’m not fussed. As long as there is no $ minimum spend or set charge for using card I’m happy (Went to top up my Opal the other day and the guy at the counter in the shop said there was a $1 charge to pay by card for a $20 top up so I walked back out).
Neil, I have no doubt customers love it and they are fully covered. The police however hate it, thieves use to take the money and through the cards. Now they take the cards as well and the first stop is usually the bottle shop. Also according to comment from senior police in the media the banks aren’t to forthcoming in releasing information that would help them track down the thieves.
The longer the customers standing in front of the counter ,the better chance the customers buying impulse of the counter
Chris if there really was 87.5% margin on coffee we’d all be doing it!
I looked into getting paywave for my newsagency, but as mentioned above, the extra merchant fees charged make paywave unattractive.
We have also had a number of people come to the counter with $80 to $90 worth of gifts/cards/mags etc that did not know their PIN. It was obvious the card was stolen.
I read awhile back that handbag snatching and home break ins had increased due to paywave.
While it is great for the honest consumer (and even better for the dishonest consumer), it is a big negative for our society.
Hi Ben,
Do some research and get back to me.
Cheers
Chris
There is also a distinct lack of education out there in consumer land.
A high number of people with “normal” (not special higher end cards) credit cards that wish to pay by card prove this. Mostly Visa Debits.
They come in and show a card. We ask, is that savings, cheque or credit account?
They say savings. I reach for the card to put it in the machine. They say “but I can pay wave it”
Because it is a debit card, accourding to them it comes out of their savings account. They don’t realise that it actually goes through our system as a credit card, and attracts us fees. Most people are reasonable once we explain it to them.
And no, we don’t charge a fee to the customer, and NO we don’t allow credit or paywave for Opal. The pittance that opal pay us, would be completely eaten in fees if we did…
This is why banks need to stop blocking mobile manufactures like Apple and Samsung from bring mobile payments into the mainstream. Mobile payments are far more secure when you have fingerprint function on your phone so no random can tap and steal!