After pressure from supermarkets, New Zealand has followed Australia in raising the limits for contactless payments in order to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission from keypads.
Payments industry group Payments NZ said this morning the threshold for keypad-free transactions will increase from NZ$80 to $200,
reported Newsroom. It said the threshold had been successfully tested at supermarkets and fuel stations over the past 48 hours.
Payments NZ CEO Steve Wiggins said the changeover would start from today, and most paywave customers would be able to use the new threshold by the end of next week. He said the move would make a significant number of transactions contactless, as one in five paywave transactions fell between $80 and $200 before lockdown.
However, customers of CBA's New Zealand subsidiary ASB (along with customers of local bank TSB) will not be able to immediately take advantage of the change.
Their cards have the $80 paywave limit hardwired in as an added layer of security.
"ASB is sorry that our current ASB Visa Credit and Debit cards do not immediately support the contactless payment increase to $200. ASB introduced contactless cards early, and at the time, responded to concerns about their security by ensuring the cards were hard-coded to ask for a PIN for all transactions above $80,"said Simon Tong, ASB executive general manager Digital, Data and Brand.
"Since identifying the need to change card limits, we have been working hard to find a solution for our existing cards but given the complexity this is likely to take several weeks. We appreciate some of our customers may want to take advantage of the $200 contactless limit sooner, so they can request a new card from today which we will happily re-issue at no cost."
ASB also said that customers who set up a new mobile payment method on their device would receive a one-off $20 refund on any purchase made at supermarkets around the country, after using their mobile device to pay for the first time.
Despite the change, payment fees still remain a Covid transmission issue in New Zealand, with smaller retailers such as dairies keeping their 'no paywave' signs on paywave-capable machines.
Banks have moved to wipe fees attached to contactless debit cards during the Covid-19 pandemic. ANZ, BNZ, ASB and Kiwibank removed paywave fees on debit card payments until the end of June; Westpac went further and waived fees for six months.
But fees remain in place for credit cards - making the payments landscape different in New Zealand. The RBA regulated PayWave and Paypass fees down in Australia lower years ago, leading to widespread acceptance of contactless payments by retailers.