PINwise FAQs

The initiative comprises of members of the payments card industry who represent all financial institutions that issue Visa, Mastercard^®, American Express^® and Diners Club cards and representatives of the card schemes. Their main role is to ensure that there is a consistent experience when customer use their credit or debit card to pay for in store purchases.

From 1 August 2014, your customers are no longer able to sign for any purchases using chip enabled credit or debit cards provided by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Diners Club. A PIN is now required to be entered at Point of Sale (POS) in Australia. These changes may affect your business.

In an effort to reduce card fraud, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Diners Club are implementing mandatory PIN entry for chip-enabled card purchases at Point of Sale (POS) in Australia.

Bank of Melbourne Merchant EFTPOS terminals have been progressively receiving software Bank of Melbourne EFTPOS terminals will receive a software update by the end of September 2014.

If your terminal is privately owned, please contact your terminal vendor for a software update schedule.

No, not all transactions will require a PIN, exemptions include:

• contactless transactions under $100
• some small ticket payments, under $35
• international transactions - customers with cards issued by an overseas bank
• non-chipped cards (magnetic stripe only)
• signature enabled cards - issued to accommodate special needs of individual cardholders
• transactions from most unattended terminals, e.g. parking meters, kiosks and vending machines
• Mail Order, Telephone Order transactions (MOTO)
• Online transactions (eCommerce)

No. There’s no change to the way these or other ‘Card Not Present’ payments are authorised. The mandate for PIN verification only affects customers paying in store where they can physically enter their PIN via the merchant’s EFTPOS terminal.

Please ask the customer to use their signature to confirm the transaction if the terminal does not prompt them to enter a PIN. Please note that contactless payments under $100 and some low value transactions under $35 via a mag-stripe (non-chip) credit and debit card will not require a PIN or signature. As terminals are progressively upgraded for this initiative, it’s likely that some EFTPOS terminals will still offer customers the option to sign for their purchase during the transition period – always follow the prompts on your terminal.

If the terminal has requested a PIN, it will not allow the transaction to continue unless the customer’s PIN is entered. Please note that some cardholders may be issued with signature-enabled card(s) for medical or special circumstance needs which will continue to allow signature authorisation at point of sale. Your EFTPOS terminal will automatically recognise the cardholder’s signature-enabled card status - always follow the prompts on your terminal.

The requirement that PINs be entered at POS means you will no longer be able to take a receipt to your customer’s table for them to sign and / or add a gratuity. A “Pay at Table” mobile terminal may be the easiest way for your customer to add a voluntary gratuity amount prior to entering their PIN to pay.

The initiative comprises of members of the payments card industry who represent all financial institutions that issue Visa, Mastercard^®, American Express and Diners Club cards and representatives of the card schemes. Their main role is to ensure that there is a consistent experience when customer use their credit or debit card to pay for in store purchases.

No. All receipts from merchant EFTPOS terminals will continue to show transaction type on the cardholder receipt.

If a customer doesn’t know their PIN, direct them to use a different card or an alternative method of payment and advise them to contact their bank. Be aware that if a customer enters the wrong PIN three times, their card may become locked and they’ll need to contact their bank to unlock their card.

Please note: Before your terminal is updated, signatures remain a valid form of cardholder authentication and should be accepted if the customer wants to sign to authorise a card payment.

Your EFTPOS terminal screen will no longer display an option to sign where a domestic chip card is used to make a purchase. International, magnetic-stripe only (i.e. non-chipped) and signature-enabled cards will still permit a customer to sign for their purchase after the software update has successfully downloaded to your terminal. In all cases, your terminal will prompt you if a PIN is required – always follow the prompts.

You can initiate a manual software update to your EFTPOS terminal by following the steps below:

• For Hypercom / VeriFone M4230 (mobile GPRS), T4230 (countertop GPRS) and T4220 (dial) terminals:
  • Step 1: Press the "Function" key and type "92"
  • Step 2: Select "Enter"
• For Ingenico i5100 (dial) and i7910 (mobile) terminals:
  • Step 1: Press the "Func" key and type "102"
  • Step 2: Select "Enter"

Can’t find your terminal model listed above? Please contact our Merchant Helpdesk for assistance on 1300 603 266.

The PINwise industry mandate states that all Australian card issuers must decline eligible domestic chip-card transactions that aren’t authorised by a valid PIN after 18 October 2014, after which time the card issuer will automatically decline the transaction if a valid PIN has not been entered.

If your terminal software hasn’t been updated by 18 October, the terminal screen prompts will potentially confuse the cardholder with respect to available options for authorising their purchase (PIN or signature). If the cardholder selects the signature option the error message response may not be clear as to the reason for their purchase being automatically declined by the card issuer.