Customers of Australia’s leading banks are being advised to manually update their mobile wallets to avoid potential payment disruptions on New Year’s Eve, reports The Age.
An automatic update is currently being deployed to the 19.1 million Eftpos cards stored in mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. This update aims to ensure seamless transactions from 1 January 2025. However, approximately 60,000 of these cards have a token expiry date of 31 December and will not receive the automatic update. As a result, cardholders could face payment difficulties starting 1 January, the report says.
This issue raises concerns reminiscent of the Y2K bug, though on a much smaller scale. The infamous “Millennium Bug” was expected to cause global computer system failures but was largely mitigated through preemptive action, The Age report says.
The update applies to customers who meet the following criteria:
- Added a debit card to their mobile wallet before July 2023
- Enabled the option to send transactions via Eftpos
- Use an Eftpos-only debit card
Lynn Kraus, CEO of Australian Payments Plus, apologised for the inconvenience and encouraged affected customers to manually resolve the issue by removing and re-adding their card to their mobile wallet.
“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,” she told The Age. “On behalf of Australian Payments Plus I apologise to anyone who might be impacted by this.”
Kraus reassured customers that card issuers will directly contact those potentially affected. Additionally, no action is required for individuals using physical debit cards.
Australian Payments Plus, established in 2022 through a merger of BPAY, Eftpos, and NPP Australia, is responsible for overseeing the update. Anna Bligh, CEO of the Australian Banking Association, noted that the issue should be a “quick fix,” according to The Age.
Cardholders are urged to act promptly to avoid disruptions, especially during the high-traffic holiday season.
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📱 Aussies with #Eftpos cards in mobile wallets must update manually to avoid disruptions on New Year’s Eve. 🎉 Affected users, act now! 🕒 Will your payments run smoothly? 🤔 Learn more here! 💳 #TheIndianSun @lynnkraus200 @ausbankinghttps://t.co/EZnbkaN9Ys
— The Indian Sun (@The_Indian_Sun) December 24, 2024
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