As part of the Industry Security Initiative, a collective of Australia’s banks and card schemes, has announced a campaign to expand the use of a PIN for authorisation on chip-enabled credit and debit cards instead of a signature.
It will affect all Australian issued scheme cards ONLY.
International visitors using cards issued by banks outside Australia are exempt from this upcoming PIN requirements at point of sale and can continue to sign to authorise payment.
The new requirements for “PIN for authorisation on chip-enabled credit and debit cards”, to be enacted from 1 August 2014, will mean all transactions for Australian cardholders in Australia will need a numerical PIN and will no longer accept a signature for authorisation.
For Australian issued cards, do all transactions in Australia need a PIN?
No, not all transactions at point of sale will need a PIN, most notably contactless transactions (Visa payWave, MasterCard PayPass or American Express Contactless) under $100 do not need to be authorised by a PIN, and do not require a signature today.
Other exemptions are:
- Certain small ticket payments that do not require signature or PIN under $35
- Transactions from most unattended terminals e.g. parking meters, kiosks and vending machines
- International transactions (transactions conducted by cardholders with cards issued by banks outside Australia)
- Magnetic stripe transactions (generally on payment cards that do not have a chip, for example some pre-paid cards and gift cards)
- Signature only cards. These cards may be issued by certain financial institutions to accommodate special needs of individual cardholders and are subject to specific criteria
In each case, the payment terminal that is reading your card will prompt for a PIN if it is required.
More information about signature authorisation at point-of-sale in Australia is available at the PINWISE web site.