Visa is introducing a Zero Floor Limit for all contactless transactions to help protect cardholders against fraud.
A Floor Limit refers to the maximum amount a merchant can charge to a cardholder without getting authorisation from the card issuer. The ‘Zero Floor Limit’ means that every card transaction will now need to be authorised online by the card issuer.
This change means that you may notice an increase in the time that contactless payments take to process, as each of the payments will now be authorised online in real time. It is important to remember that when you hear the ‘beep’ when a contactless card is tapped against a card reader, this does not mean that the payment has been authorised. You should then wait for the authorisation message to be displayed before you complete the transaction with the customer.
If you do not wait for the transaction to be fully authorised and the customer leaves before the message is displayed, there is a risk of the payment being declined and leaving you out of pocket.
To prepare for the Visa Zero Floor Limit charge PayPoint will be updating their card payment terminals remotely from 7th August 2017. Once your terminal has been updated, online authorisations of all contactless payments will take effect immediately.
The processing speed will depend upon your internet connection so it may be worth reviewing the speed of your service with your internet supplier.
Retailers with a PayPoint terminal who are concerned about the change can contact [email protected] for further information.
