Eftpos set to launch Tap & Pay for mobile wallets in 2017

Digital wallet users who prefer making cheque and savings payments may have the ability to Tap & Pay via eftpos with their smartphones next year, the payment provider announced yesterday.

“We are now working with several members [banks] and successfully testing the token service in order to launch eftpos as a secure payment option in mobile wallets in 2017,” said CTO of eftpos Australia, Paul Jennings at a Sydney conference.

"eftpos Tokens enable payments via mobile devices without compromising security, which provides consumers peace of mind,” he added.

While digital wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay have been around for some time, what makes payments through the EFTPOS system different is the potential for shoppers to avoid higher surcharge fees often associated with other payment options.

Who uses eftpos?

According to eftpos Australia, Aussies made around 2.23 billion eftpos transactions from 2015 to this year alone, making it a grand total spend of $138 billion through the payment network.

What makes it cheaper?

As RBA official, Tony Richards said recently, June quarterly data has shown “there are very large differences in the cost of different card systems for merchants”, ranging from 0.14% of transactions with eftpos to the average cost of credit card transactions at 0.81%. In other words, eftpos is at the lower end of the scale compared to digital wallets which currently go through the credit card network.

How eftpos integrated digital wallets would work:

A spokesperson has confirmed with Mozo that eftpos is working to integrate the feature with “as many digital wallets as possible”.

Let’s say tech giants Samsung, Google, Apple and the banks, with their own digital wallets, integrated eftpos’ technology into their respective mobile apps in the New Year. Hypothetically, digital wallet users would see an eftpos option when they used their smartphones to pay.