Square Now Supports EFTPOS payments in Australia!

[Seamus]

Since launching card payments in Australia in 2016, EFTPOS support - aka savings or cheque account selection - has been the #1 Most Wanted Feature™ requested by Australian Square merchants.

Today, we're thrilled to launch EFTPOS with Square as a free update to our Contactless + Chip reader 🎊 

Customers will now be able to pay from their savings or cheque accounts on any EFTPOS Chip or Tap card, in addition to being able to pay with any Visa, MasterCard or American Express branded card.

What types of EFTPOS payments can I accept with Square?

You’ll be able to take Chip and Tap EFTPOS payments with Square's Contactless + Chip Reader. Savings and Cheque account selection will be available when using a Chip EFTPOS card, while Contactless EFTPOS cards will automatically process via the default account on the card with a Tap.

What about older swipe-only EFTPOS cards?

We’ve made the decision not to support older magnetic swipe based EFTPOS cards because they are in the process of being phased out in Australia. Visa, MasterCard and American Express branded cards have been Chip-based for years now. The only remaining Australian cards to make the full transition to Chip security are EFTPOS cards, which are due to be 100% chip-based by the end of 2020.

We understand there are some customers still using swipe-only cards, however we’ve made the call not to support swipe based on the current phase-out. Customers are currently able to request an upgrade of their older swipe-only EFTPOS cards to Chip EFTPOS with their card providers, at no cost.

Will my existing Square Reader work with EFTPOS?

Currently EFTPOS support is being provided as a free firmware update for our Contactless + Chip Reader. You can enable EFTPOS support by updating the Square POS app to the latest version, then opening the app. Once connected, your Contactless + Chip reader will perform a firmware update that should take approx 5 minutes, depending on your internet connection speed.

Our older plug-in Chip reader will unfortunately not be supporting EFTPOS cards. Ultimately the technical limitations of the plug-in Chip card reader were such that supporting EFTPOS was not viable on this reader.

What is the card processing fee for EFTPOS cards?

In keeping with the simplicity of our current fee structure, EFTPOS transactions will be charged at 1.9%, in line with our current fee for processing Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards through Square. There are no additional fees associated with EFTPOS transactions - Square still has no monthly account keeping fees, sign up fees or exit fees.

Will I be able to give my customers a ‘cash out’ option when they pay with EFTPOS?

No. You are not able to issue cash out via Square POS.

Got questions, comments or feedback? Please feel free to post them in this thread, or get in touch with our support team on 1800 760 137.

[Carabeanau]

Is there a way to get new stickers that include EFTPOS  like the ones you get when you purchase a reader?

[Seamus]

Hey @Carabeanau,

Not at the moment, but they're coming soon - I'll provide an update via this thread once they're available 👍

[Carabeanau]

Good thing I hadn’t got round to putting my stickers up XD

[theroyalctambo]

Hi Sheamus, have these stickers surfaced as of yet?

[Seamus]

Hey @theroyalctambo,

Yes, they have! They're available now via your online Dashboard.

Heads up @Carabeanau - sorry we didn't get back to you about this earlier! 

[mazy]

Do these EFTPOS transactions get processed the same way as a TAP transaction? Some customers say that to insert the card still gets treated like a TAP...meaning, their account options dont come up or they dont have to enter their PIN...so they think its a TAP

[Seamus · Accepted solution]

Hey @mazy,

Thanks for getting in touch and welcome to the community 🙂

Good questions!

• Account selection for EFTPOS cards is available by inserting the chip on the front of the card into the slot on the card reader.

• Tap is designed for speed and convenience, so the transaction will always charge to the default payment method for the customer's card without account selection - it may come from savings, cheque or Visa/MasterCard debit depending on how the card provider has this set.

• PIN entry is also determined by the card provider, rather than Square. Most cards require a PIN for transactions above $100, and PIN entry is required for transactions using both Chip and Tap. Note that you may see some cards set to require PINs for smaller transactions, eg some cards have a limit of $35 rather than $100 before requiring a PIN.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

[Lisa08]

Good morning Seamus.

I'm new to square and wondering how I facilitate payments over the phone on eftpos for over $100 without having to ask clients for their pin? 

Lisa

[Laurie_]

Hi there, @Lisa08 thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Seller Community!

In these cases where the payment is prompting you to enter a PIN and your customer is not physically present to enter this information, we can suggest a few alternatives.

The first option is to send a payment link to your customer. A regular payment in your Square POS app can be easily sent as a payment link by selecting this option at Checkout. You can also send a payment link with Virtual Terminal.

The second option would be to invoice your customer for the payment, which will enable them to securely enter their own card details on their end.

We hope this helps to give you some more options here for accepting card-not-present payments. 

[GrahamB]

Hi Square, there is a glitch in your Contactless software.  Some Contactless cards fail when tapped on the Contactless reader but work OK when they are inserted. ( Get an acvount selection screen when inserted)  If the Customer doesn't have a Default account the account selection screen should come up when the card is tapped... 

Inserting cards should be a thing of the past as Australia has been Contactless for several years now....

Please fix this Square as it wastes time and confuses or updets Customers when their card will not "tap".

...

[GrahamB]

This issue remains... it is a PITA and some customers are reluctant to insert their card.

Why can't this be fixed?

[Laurie_]

Thanks for sharing your feedback with us, @GrahamB.

At this time, if your customer wishes to select a specific account to draw funds from when paying with their credit or debit card, they’ll need to insert their chip card into the Square Reader. 

Rest assured, our security measures are multi-layered to ensure buyers and sellers can trust every transaction is safe. A buyer’s pin is immediately encrypted when the buyer enters it into Square Point of Sale. In fact, Square’s systems encrypt all sensitive information to ensure it cannot be read by the seller, their mobile device or any unauthorised parties.

You can learn more about Square's security measures here.