Why Sharesies Debit Mastercard uses the ‘Credit’ button

The source of your Spend balance

Rest assured, your Sharesies card is a debit card, not a credit card. That means every purchase you make is paid for directly out of your Sharesies Spend account balance.

Using your Sharesies Debit Mastercard, and pressing ‘Credit’ at the point of sale, doesn’t mean you’re borrowing money. It simply tells the system to process your payment through Mastercard’s network (which is how Sharesies card transactions are processed). 

Mastercard and EFTPOS—what’s the difference?

Many bank-issued debit cards can run over both the Mastercard (or Visa) networks and the EFTPOS system as the standard default. The difference between EFTPOS and Mastercard? 

• EFTPOS is a set of rules that allow New Zealand banks to talk to each other and move money between accounts. It was established in the 1980s to streamline in-store purchases by replacing cash, cheque, and manual credit card processing.

• Mastercard is a modern global payments network that supports in-store and online transactions both here in New Zealand and internationally.

When designing the Sharesies Spend account, we chose to partner with Mastercard for our payments processing—and not to include EFTPOS as a supported payment method—for several reasons:

1. Better protection for you. Mastercard provides fraud protection, transaction disputes, and chargebacks. EFTPOS doesn’t offer the same safeguards.

2. It’s accepted almost everywhere. Mastercard is a global network, while EFTPOS is only accepted in Australia and New Zealand.

3. Surcharges are still evolving. The New Zealand government has proposed changes to surcharging. The future of this is currently a bit uncertain, so we’re keeping a close eye on developments and will reassess our approach to EFTPOS as we get more clarity. 

4. Faster access to meaningful features. Prioritising Mastercard over supporting EFTPOS meant we could get features like Google Pay™ and Apple Pay to you sooner.

The payoff

Your Sharesies Debit Mastercard gives you all the benefits of a global debit card like convenience, security, and flexibility—without the limitations of EFTPOS.

So next time you choose to pay with your pink card and see the ‘Credit’ option, you can tap with confidence knowing exactly what’s happening in the background, and that it’s your money funding the purchase.