About EFTPOS
EFTPOS Overview
The Bank of New Zealand first introduced EFTPOS to New Zealand in 1985 through a trial period with petrol stations. In 1989 the EFTPOS system was officially launched and two providers owned by the major banks now run the system, Paymark and ANZ.
During July 2006, we saw the five billionth EFTPOS payment transacted through the Paymark EFTPOS network since the electronic form of payment was first introduced in 1989.
For many the name of the payment system is a mystery in itself. So, let’s start off with explaining what EFTPOS stands for:
E = Electronic, F = Funds, T = Transfer at, P = Point, O = Of, S = Sale
What are contactless payments?
Contactless or Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is quickly becoming the preferred mechanism for making and accepting payments in overseas markets. It’s already being used extensively and successfully throughout Asia and America at sporting events, fast food restaurants, bars, cafes, taxis and convenience stores to significantly speed up payments and is expanding rapidly in Australia, the UK and Europe.
All the main NZ banks’ cards now feature contactless capability, utilising RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology within an embedded chip and antenna within the card. As a result the number of terminals in the market on which these cards can be used is rapidly expanding.
Paymark, Vodafone New Zealand, 2degrees and Spark New Zealand have announced plans to bring the future of mobile payment services to New Zealand. This will allow New Zealanders to make secure payments, collect loyalty points and use public transport with their mobile phones.
At Smartpay, we’re committed to contactless payments and understand it’s part of the future for payments. All our terminals come with tap and go technology and are ready to take chip enabled cards.