Just a pack of raisins, thanks.
New Zealand takes pride in being ‘the world’s guniea pig’. A micro-society, allegedly employed by the large (inverted commas) Corporations and/or Governments of the world to beta test new technologies, or political ideas, before they are released to much larger countries.
A common argument suggests that this is how New Zealand – an otherwise frontier outpost of technological retardation – developed the first near-cashless society, through the early introduction of Eftpos (Electronic Funds Transfer point… oh, you know what is without having to explain the acronym).
So it was that, during the late 80s and early 90s, while the rest of the world was still bumbling along with easily forgeable cheques, insecure credit card signatures, and a quaint phenomenon known as ‘Cash’, Kiwis were already buying everything, from Pineapple Lumps to Swandris, with a piece of plastic and a 4-digit pin, which linked directly, in real time, to their current account.
But even more exciting to New Zealanders than the idea of already living in the ‘not to distant future’, was the thrill of reminding ourselves that every other country, by comparison, was still living in the past (otherwise known as, ‘the present’). This helped satisfy the Kiwi need for constant postitive identity reinforcement, gave some purpose to our diminutive population, and may even have gone some way towards putting New Zealand on the map.
But above all, it provided yet another talking point for Kiwis abroad to discuss at length how much better were many aspects of New Zealand life, than those of the country they were vising. Which lead to countless snippets of conversation along the lines of;
- “I can’t believe they still use cash!”
- “You know signing a credit card receipt is just sooo insecure.”
- “Back home, in New Zealand, we have this technology called Eftpos. It (we) is really quite advanced.”
- “Yes, apparently New Zealand is a guinea pig for a lot of this sort of technology, which is why we’re so advanced. It’s one of the many advantages to being such a small country.”
- “You have something called Switch, you say? But you still have to sign for it? No, it’s not really as good as Eftpos.”
- “A £10 minimum purchase!? What a rip! In New Zealand I can buy a pack of chewing gum with Eftpos. A pack of chewing gum! I shall, therefore, take my business elsewhere!”
- “Have you heard of New Zealand? Do you like the All Blacks? What about the America’s Cup?”
- “No, for the last bloody time, Crowded House is not Australian.”
Kiwis are, to this day, fiercely proud of their history with Eftpos, and will defend to the bitter end their right to purchase 25c items without using cash.
Furthermore, as a society at immense social ill-ease when it comes to tipping, Eftpos allows us to wallow in our natural inclination not to tip for service, while claiming that “I was just paying the amount they entered in the machine.” Even if this amount has been split 9 ways. 9 painstakingly fair, and separate Eftpos transaction, ways. With cash, though, only a real prick wouldn’t round up the bill.
However, the reality of being a beta-testing environment, is that often by the time the stable technology has been released, you get left out of the upgrade process.
So while, in an effort to combat identity fraud, the rest of the world is introducing secure ‘Chip & Pin’ technology, tied into online bank accounts with multi-layered password access and offline card readers, New Zealand still chugs along with it’s 20 year old system.
It is entirely possible to run a quick scan of any NZ Eftpos card’s magnetic strip in the morning, send the data by SMS to the Philippines, and drain a bank account by lunch. Likewise, most Internet bank accounts in New Zealand require just one username & password combination. And once logged in, without any further authorisation, it is possible to send unlimited funds to any third party.
But some comfort should be taken in the fact that, with so little actual money in the New Zealand economy, as a crime destination, it would represent a very poor return on investment to any of the established Ukrainian or Nigerian identity theft organisations. It may, therefore, be a while before we have anything serious to worry about.
This is a topic that is near to my heart…
Thank you! Where are your contact details though?
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As a Kiwi living in France and having a reputation for being stingy, this one is close to my heart. As is constantly complaining about minimum 10€ transactions…
But as a side-note, I find myself really curious to know what country all the people leaving comments are from (thank you to the people who spell it out). Maybe they could put an optional ‘Country’ or ‘Nationality’ field in the comments.
Seasons greetings to all of you and best wishes for the coming year 2010. Great way to explain it. Can’t say more than to appreciate what you are penned down. can you show how to grab your rss feed? I couldn’t find how
If some farty retailer wont round down $100-07c I always pay a $100 cash and the rest on EFT-POS, Please!!
Except: Chip+Pin is a pain in the arse with offline transactions, as you’ll find 4 days after you bought that Coke at the local Tesco the transaction comes in at midnight, putting your account into overdraft.
Shortly after your next 5 days worth of Costa coffees come in as well, tipping your account further into over draft.
Halifax had the nerve to charge me £300 in overdraft fees for 4 transactions totaling less than £6.
Eftpos FTW!
Not guinea pigs…more like the Huia, or an even more closer to home animal allegory, the Kiwi
Hmmm, but there has to be something in the fact that we’re the smallest mothertongue English-speaking country on Earth
I guess it’s easy to treat us like those hi tech villages they set up in Japan, which were originally for the scientists to live and work in, but ended up being the subjects of covert Scientific experiments
….and how about transfers taking overnight/over the weekend if sent between banks? It’s like sending an email, but it taking as long as “snail mail” to get where it’s going. It’s a hassle in the convenience of your own home.
The Interact system (similar to Eftpos) has existed in Canada for a very long time. It was actually nice to come to New Zealand and discover that they had such a system because we’ve been to the UK and thought their banking system was barely out of the middle ages. Same goes for the US which still heavily uses cheques.
But the question remains, is NZ a double-guinea-pig-island, or is it a myth?
Do tech companies really try out new stuff here? (apart from eftpos that is which, I think, went to Aus at about the same time).
Hard to know. The same thing used to be said of Palmerston North, that it was a perfect ‘microcosym’, by gender, race, socio-economic status etc, and was therefore a popular location for sample testing.
If anywhere needed to propogate a good myth to boost it’s sense of sense of self-worth, it would be Palmerston North.
Otherwise known as “A good place to go to die” (John Cleese)
It was definitely Paeroa. They always use them for the pre-election surveys.
Or was it New Plymouth?
I always get them confused…
Not sure about tech companies, but other ones…. remember McDonalds Gourmet dinners? Very briefly, at very few Maccas restaurants.
Oh how I miss the cordless eftop machines in the UK, the first time one of those were brought out to my table my ex thought it was a phone…. well, she was from Bosnia!
This trait shows up when NZers travel abroad. One study shows we are perceived as tight as a guinea pig’s bum spending overseas too. It may be all tied up with us trying to live a First World Life on a Third World national income.