18eftpos is finally available on Apple Pay in Australia, marking all four payment networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and eftpos) available for payments on iPhone and Apple Watch (and iPad and Mac for online/app payments). With eftpos only available in Australia, and currently in store only (no support for online or phone payments), it’s actually not the first country specific network to be supported by Apple, with Interac cards supported in Canada.
As what seems to be the norm these days, ANZ is first out of the gates, and is also the only bank supporting eftpos. While ‘debit’ cards have been available in Apple Pay for a while, previously they’ve been dual scheme Visa/Mastercard cards, and when you tap your phone or watch, it goes through as a ‘Credit’ transaction via the Visa/Mastercard networks. While this has some benefits (especially when it comes to chargebacks), it also usually costs a business more than an eftpos payment would.
Interestingly, Apple Wallet includes support for eftpos’ unique CHQ/SAV accounts, where you can change the account that you’re tapping with, a boon for those with multiple bank accounts linked to a single card.
eftpos in Apple Pay features all the same security and features as other Apple Pay cards, including tokenised card numbers (so you’re not actually using your real card number in stores) and requiring Touch ID for all purchases. As it’s only supported for contactless payments in store, you can only add it to your iPhone or Apple Watch – with no support for the Mac or the iPad.
ANZ has around 1.6 million ANZ ‘Access’ (eftpos only) cardholders who can now take advantage of Apple Pay, with eftpos support for Android Pay still listed as ‘coming soon’.
eftpos Acting CEO, Mr Paul Jennings, said
“Today marks a significant milestone for eftpos as we move from our traditional card based payment method into mobile, enabling consumers with an iPhone or Apple Watch to choose the eftpos account they wish their mobile payment to be made from, being either their eftpos CHQ/SAV account.”