Confusion slows card migrations

Retailers and customers are confused by the multiple payments industry migration projects underway at the moment, the Smartcards and Innovative Payments Conference in Canberra was told yesterday.

Key retailers are even talking about slowing down the migration to contactless to give the EMV project time to settle in the hearts and minds of consumers.

Additionally, the migration of ATMs to EMV is expected to be a very long-term project, despite that point of presence is increasingly becoming the weak link in a secure payments system.

"The customer is getting very confused at the moment," said Russell Zimmerman, chair of the Australian Merchants Payment Forum.

"They are being told you can swipe, dip, wave your card. They are being told they can write their signature or use a PIN.

"Right now there are two million contactless cards out there in wallets but very few readers and most consumers don't even know they have a contactless card."

Zimmerman said chip transactions were slow but marketed as secure while contactless purchases are quick but perceived by customers to be less secure.

That view was supported by Douglas Swansson, Head of Payment Services for Coles, who said the big retailer was holding off from going contactless with its fleet of 28,000 terminals.

"The UK went chip and PIN and then straight away brought in contactless, but that can be very confusing."

He said it was important to keep the projects separate in the public's mind.

"Chip doesn't really promise a great deal to the consumer - yes the chip brings security but they are covered anyway," Swanson told the conference yesterday.

"But contactless is completely different - it is very pro consumer. Plus it is a bit confusing for consumers when banks get excited about rolling out 500 contactless readers when they aren't issuing cards for them yet."