New contactless credit cards shaky start

23 October 2009

Contactless credit cards have left many customers confused after being introduced in Melbourne for a trial in September, with both merchants and customers unsure of the new technology.

The contactless credit cards were introduced to the Australian credit cards and banking market as a new method to speed up the payment process for both customers and merchants. Around 500 merchant stores were equipped with the NAB Contactless Reader, as introduced by National Australia Bank and Visa, which only required customers with a NAB Visa payWave-enabled card to wave their card to process a payment.

The Smartcards and Innovative Payments Conference took place in Canberra this week, where the new technology and its cool reception were discussed.

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

"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." He stated.

Apparently one issue was that people were taking the name too literally when waving their card, not giving the reader time to register.

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