Huge confusion over FNB app tap-to-pay shutdown

FNB has reassured customers it is not disabling tap-to-pay functionality for card payments following a report over the weekend by The Sunday Times about the bank’s decision to remove tap payments from its Android app.

The article, originally titled “FNB clients fume as tap-to-pay switched off”, explained that the company was only shutting down its built-in FNB app tap-to-pay feature, available to its Android mobile banking app users.

However, many people who had not read the article commented on a Facebook post with an image of the headline on a poster, mistakenly praising what they believed to be a complete switch-off of tap-to-pay on all FNB products.

It should be noted that the Facebook post itself also explained that only FNB’s Android app was affected, although it could have been clearer.

“FNB has switched off its contactless tap-to-pay facility for Android-supported mobile devices after seven years and clients aren’t happy,” the post stated.

Several responses to the post argued that tap-to-pay was not secure and that FNB was acting in the interest of its customers.

“Excellent. All banks should do the same. It is not safe,” said one user.

“The reason FNB is always [the] best bank. They introduce things if they sense danger to customers…they close it even before it trends with complaints,” a second said.

“They now have to insert their card and push some buttons. The travesty!” another joked.

FNB head of card digitisation Jason Viljoen reiterated to MyBroadband that only the “home-grown” FNB tap-to-pay feature built into the banking app would be sunsetted in April in favour of the banks’ “numerous” alternatives for tap payments.

“FNB continues to support contactless payments via bank card and all other digital contactless solutions,” Viljoen said.

These include third-party payment wallets like Apple Pay, Fitbit Pay, Garmin Pay, Google Pay/Wallet, and Samsung Pay/Wallet.

These wallets allow users to link their physical or virtual bank cards to an app on a smartphone or smartwatch that can then be tapped to make a payment — the same way the FNB app’s tap-to-pay feature worked.

The tap-to-pay feature built into FNB’s app was the bank’s own solution for Android smartphones with NFC and was first introduced in 2016.

Viljoen said the bank wanted to phase this feature out to simplify payments for its customers.

“The landscape of digital payments is rapidly evolving, with giants like Google Wallet continually enhancing user experience and adding functionality beyond contactless tapping,” Viljoen said.

“We aim to reduce the decision-making burden on our customers of which wallet to use by offering them the most streamlined and efficient payment experiences available today and integrated within our app.”

Responding to customers’ complaints over tap-to-pay’s safety, Viljoen explained that contactless payments were not only more convenient but also provided additional security.

Firstly, contactless payments reduced the risk of card skimming or swapping because they removed the need to hand a bank card to a till operator or other individuals to complete a purchase.

Tap-to-pay also has numerous security features, including full encryption that requires an uninterrupted ‘hand-shake’ with the payment terminal.

In addition, payments above certain amounts require a PIN to be entered on the terminal.

Tap payments via a smartphone or smartwatch with a digital payment wallet app also requires validation with a passcode or biometrics.

Lastly, only registered merchants can ‘”acquire” transactions, so a malicious person walking around with a machine to tap people’s pockets for unsolicited transactions would be traceable.

eBucks loyalists on Huawei smartphones must use Scan-to-Pay

The FNB Android app’s tap-to-pay feature will be shut down on 14 April 2024.

In the next ten weeks, FNB aims to help those who still use the feature to migrate to an alternative digital card wallet.

Over the past few months, the bank has started advertising Google Wallet in its app, even to users already using third-party options like Samsung Pay.

Google Wallet, in particular, is likely to prove popular as it is supported on any NFC-enabled smartphone with Android, the dominant smartphone operating system in South Africa.

The only exception is recent Huawei smartphones, which don’t support Google Mobile Services (GMS) and consequently cannot run Google Pay/Wallet.

While these users could still tap their cards to make contactless payments, they would lose out on levelling points for the bank’s eBucks Rewards loyalty programme.

FNB’s recent eBucks rules revamp strongly encourages using virtual cards for in-person and online payments.

Viljoen advised Huawei users to use the FNB app’s scan-to-pay feature to make contactless payments with their virtual cards.