Almost 700 eftpos terminals in Marlborough face being cut off from electronic payment provider Paymark's network if they do not upgrade their systems by next year.
According to Paymark's August numbers, 681 eftpos terminals in Marlborough are in need of an upgrade to a newer version because of revised global security standards.
The company is worried not enough businesses in the country are making the necessary upgrades to accommodate new card technology.
Businesses spoken to by The Marlborough Express leased their eftpos terminals which were updated and maintained as part of the contract.
All said electronic transactions made up about 80 per cent of their daily trade.
Cruizies manager Marie Gleeson said the cafe had one eftpos terminal, which was leased, and was waiting for a technician to do the updating work.
Paddy Barry's Irish Pub manager Liz McElhinney said the pub's three terminals were leased and she had just received a flyer in a hospitality magazine reminding businesses to upgrade the terminals. The upgrades would allow businesses to process electronic payments as part of new global security standards including new chip technology.
Paymark head of sales and marketing Paul Whiston said terminal upgrades were happening, but not fast enough.
He feared a rush of businesses would put pressure on technicians as many would look to upgrade at the last minute.
Businesses were probably slow at upgrading because new ones cost about $1500, which was "not insignificant" for small businesses, he said.
Terminals needed to be upgraded whether they were leased or owned by businesses, he said. Businesses which did not upgrade by the June 2011 deadline would be in breach of the new security standards and would also be unable to process some new credit cards which had chips to help prevent fraud, he said.
The 59,051 terminals nationwide will become obsolete after the June deadline as network connections to the old machines will be cut.
The Paymark network processes 75 per cent of the country's electronic transactions.
BY SIMON WONG - The Marlborough Express
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