Why Aussies could be without eftpos this New Year’s Eve

Aussies are being warned to check their mobile and wearable payment devices or risk being unable to purchase items this New Year’s Eve.

In an unwanted start to the year, a staggering number of Aussies could be left without access to payments through their mobile or wearable devices, as an update to Australia’s eftpos network will occur during the middle of New Year’s Eve plans.

Customers of Australia’s major banks are being urged to manually update their mobile wallets to avoid a technical update that could render them unable to spend their own money on New Year’s Eve.

An automatic update is being rolled out to the 19.1 million eftpos cards on mobile wallets.

Depending on when a card was added to the wallet, Australian Payments Plus (AP+) said it could mean up to 60,000 people being unable to use their cards.

60,000 Aussies could be without eftpos services this New Year’s Eve Picture: NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

AP+ said the update being rolled out to debit cards on mobile wallets was to ensure consumers could continue to make payments via eftpos from January 1 2025.

Unfortunately, for New Year’s plans, it has been confirmed to NewsWire that the outage will start at 12.01am, meaning it could impact social plans for many Aussies relying on eftpos services.

These updates will be across all mobile devices, with those on Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung pay all likely to be impacted.

For those using a physical debit card, there will be no update required.

AP+ said customers likely to be impacted were those who added a debit card to their mobile wallet before July 2023 and had turned on options to send transactions via eftpos or used an eftpos-only debit card.

“Even though this could impact only a minority of consumers with eftpos debit cards in their mobile wallet, we are acting now out of an abundance of caution, as it is an extremely busy time of year for payments, and for those who won’t be able to complete a payment, it will matter,” AP+ chief executive Lynn Kraus said.

“On behalf of AP+, I apologise to anyone who might be impacted by this.”

Australian Banking Association chief executive Anna Bligh said customers shouldn’t be concerned if they needed to update their service, with it being a pretty quick fix.

Prior to new year, Aussies are being urged to reinstall card details on compatible devices. Picture: Supplied

“This update will only impact a small number of customers and banks will reach out to those who need to take action,” she said in a statement to NewsWire.

“It is a straightforward and quick fix, with affected customers simply needing to remove and re-add their card to their mobile devices.”

AP+ said it was working with card issuers who would contact their potentially impacted customers

Aussies who think they might be impacted by the outage are being encouraged to get ahead of the update and reinstall their card prior to January 1.

Keep an eye out for scammers

Aussies are also being urged to remain vigilant throughout this process.

While banks might be in contact with impacted customers who can no longer use their devices, Aussies are being warned of the potential risks of scammers trying to take advantage of these updates.

“Each bank will share their own messaging around removing and re-adding their card with impacted customers,” an AP+ spokesperson said.

“Consumers should be aware that no contact will be made to them directly from eftpos or AP+.”

According to AP+, customers who have doubts about messages should verify them prior to taking any action.

“As always, consumers should be suspicious of any message asking them to share personal information or bank details,” the AP+ spokesperson said.

Originally published as Why Aussies could be without eftpos this New Year’s Eve