PIN only credit card payments to impact cafes and restuarants most

Australia's 14,000 cafes and restaurants are expected to be the most impacted by the new mandatory PIN requirements for credit and debit card purchases which comes into effect on 1 August, 2014.

Signature payments will be abolished for all purchases over $100, with the move to PIN based transactions expected to result in a significant reduction in payment fraud.

Australians make around 5 billion card payments and spend over $434 billion annually on credit and debit card transactions.

According to Jost Stollman, CEO of Tyro Payments, Australia's leading EFTPOS provider, the move to PIN-only payments will impact cafes and restaurants, their staff and customers the most, as customers will now have to leave their seats to pay for bills at the cashier.

"While mobile terminals are nothing new, their adoption in restaurants was lacklustre to say the least," he said. "Australians spend a huge $10 billion annually dining out at cafes and restaurants and struggling retailers can't afford to alienate their customers."

While MasterCard and Visa have done a great job at making people more PIN-wise, said Mr Stollman, they have not really addressed the issue for business owners and customers who will be more inconvenienced by the new PIN only payment process.

Tyro has developed a "pay at table" solution which allow customers to pay at tip at the table. The mobile terminals not only improves the customer paying experience but it also makes restaurant staff and owners lives much easier.

Cost-effective business banking solutions are vital to growth for small businesses. Reducing customer wait times for bills and staff trips back and forth to the register should result in better customer service as well as business profits.