The impact of debit cards and contactless on retail sector

The impact of debit cards and contactless on the retail sector

With credit card fees being in the news lately, Paymark takes a closer look at the new cards and what they mean for the retail sector.

The rise of the contactless card, coupled with the introduction of debit cards, has seen a marked change in the way New Zealanders shop and interact with their own money.

Introduced early 2013 by the credit card companies, the use of contactless cards now accounts for 11.1% of the number of all card transactions through Paymark. The growth rate in the last twelve months has been 77%.

These cards come in two forms: a contactless credit card and a contactless debit card. The high growth reflects both more use of cards for payment and a shift from the more traditional non-contactless cards. While there has been some replacement of the traditional credit card with contactless credit cards, with a consequent reduction in the fee charged to the merchant, the net effect has been 6% fewer purchases on credit through Paymark in the last twelve months. This is being more than picked up by growth in the use of debit cards offered by the credit card schemes, both those with and without the contactless payment chip.

ends

© Scoop Media