EFTPOS

Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (EFTPOS) is a payment mechanism which allows consumers to pay for goods and services at the point of sale.  This is done using debit or credit cards where transactions are processed electronically from the point of capture, with cardholder accounts debited in real time.

The service offered by EFTPOS is designed to be a substitute to cash and cheque payments, making the payments of goods and services as easy as possible for both consumers and merchants. This is typically done via an EFTPOS terminal at the POS which captures the customer's card details with a magnetic stripe or smart card reader. The EFTPOS terminal then transmits the cardholder information and the amount to be debited into the financial institution for processing. 

As the Australian EFTPOS system ensures that all financial institutions are fully linked, all EFTPOS capable debit and credit cards regardless of issuer, can transact on all terminals.

The Australian Payments Clearing Association is the body which controls the operation of the Australian payments industry.  For more information, please see http://www.apca.com.au/.