CBZ Bank launches contactless payment solution with a twist

Valentine Muhamba Avatar
CBZ bank Zimbabwe, Black Friday Loans, building society

With the second wave of the pandemic weighing heavy on the country, there is a greater need for payments solutions that complement public health measures. I am sure you are aware of a number of solutions already on the market, for example, Stanbic’s QR Code payments, Tap and Go cards and POS machines. These solutions offer a barrier between you and whoever you are going to interact with at transaction points. Well, in line with all of this CBZ Bank has joined in the contactless payment game but with a little bit of a twist.

CBZ Tap and Go VISA cards

CBZ Bank recently launched a VISA card which comes with a contactless or NFC payments feature. This card allows CBZ customers to pay at Tap and Go enabled POS machines by simply bringing their card in range of said machine.

To add on to this CBZ has upgraded all of it’s POS machines so they can accept contactless payments.

Ok… So where’s the twist?

At this point, most of you are wondering what sort of convenience CBZ could have added to contactless payments. Well, the folks over at CBZ recognised that even though there is a lockdown we still have to do our shopping. In most cases, we are buying relatively low sum supplies for our homes (bread, vegetables etc.).

These small items usually have us going to the store a few times a week to resupply. So… with CBZ’s new contactless system any purchase up to ZWL$600.00 will not require you to enter your PIN. You can simply tap your card on a contactless payment-enabled POS machine and the transaction will be processed.

CBZ has added this measure in order to limit the contact it’s customers have when they are out buying these regularly purchased items. For sums over the ZWL$600.00 threshold, you will, however, have to enter your PIN.

How does the card allow a ZWL$600 transaction with no PIN?

This is something that we touched on when we reported on the First Capital customer who reached out to us saying that they swiped at City Parking and the transaction went through without needing them to enter their PIN.

In that article we went over CVM (Customer Verification Methods) and one of them was “No CVM Required”. This is a pretty common thing in some countries when cardholders want to buy something that is relatively cheap.

The bank governs what that low value is and this is how we think CBZ is making this happen.

Is this safe?

Well, for the most part, it is as long as you have your card in your possession. The only concern here would be if someone knows how the card works and steals it.

If this happens you will know because CBZ sends it’s customers SMSes after each transaction. So in the unfortunate event that someone takes your card, you will know and can contact CBZ’s 24 hr customer support centre to have the card blocked.

5 comments

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  1. slime

    if (transaction > 600 ) { return enterPin() }

  2. Imi vanhu musadaro

    I doubt they have upgraded ALL their POS machines. Given the diverse types of POS machines they use, some are probably not upgradeable (most POS aren’t upgradeable from a hardware perspective).

    Maybe they meant a software upgrade enabling the feature on the capable POS machines.

    1. Taps

      I am also wondering if they replaced all the POS with new ones.

    2. Yanis Star

      All their POS machines which they purchased from 2018 have the nfc capability. It was just not activated because the card was not yet available. So I would agree that the bulk of the terminals are activated.

      Two things I recommend:
      1). CBZ needs to keep reminding their merchants because in some shops, they still insert the card.
      2). Seeing that the tap and go facility is increasing with more banks coming on board, we need the facility to be overlayed on Zimswitch rails so that the market can use it without having to ask for my bank’s pos machine!!
      3). CBZ should also increase the floor limit to $1000 (about usd10). I am not sure what informs an awkward figure like $600.

  3. Rumbi

    We haven’t even received the new card so l wonder how they can upgrade to this level wen some of us have been asked to wait for just a card for more than a year now

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