By ELEANOR BLACK consumer reporter
New Zealand's first credit card embedded with a microchip is here, and Brains from the cult television programme Thunderbirds is the spokesman.
ANZ's multipurpose card Zed stores information about the user's shopping habits and, say promoters, helps to prevent online card fraud.
The card, launched yesterday, allows retailers
to offer product vouchers that are stored on the card and can be redeemed for goods on the spot.
Starting next month, cardholders will be able to download the rewards from the card's website, using a computer attachment called a card reader.
ANZ spokesman Ian Colley says the smart card offers greater security for online shopping. When a customer wants to buy something over the internet, he or she enters a password and the card will communicate with the web browser using the Zed card reader.
The card reader will verify that both the card and its owner are present at the point of purchase.
On day the card could even be used to make health insurance claims, gain access to secure buildings, get into a movie or catch a bus or train.
Thirty thousand terminals capable of reading the new cards will be delivered to retailers over the next year. Some will be operating next week.
In addition to microchips, the new cards carry magnetic strips so they can be used at cash Machines, shops that do not have special terminals, and overseas.
All Visa cards will carry chips within three to five years, meaning all New Zealand's big banks will soon be offering smart credit cards.
So far, ANZ is the only bank to commit itself to the new technology, says Visa spokesman Peter Vicary.
At the Auckland launch yesterday, the first television ad for Zed was shown. Brains - wearing his signature oversized glasses and playing to the camera - went clothes shopping and flirted with the shop assistant.
His presentation was a winner with the assembled journalists, and ANZ hopes it will play as well with the folks at home.
But Claire Matthews, senior banking lecturer at Massey University, says the new card may prove more gimmicky than useful.
She says banks have been seriously considering introducing chip cards since 1996 but no clear advantage has been identified.
"They haven't found what's called the killer application. Even now I'm not sure ANZ has done so."
The ANZ smart card was launched in Australia last week.
Chip credit cards are used by some American banks and are popular in Europe, especially France, where they have been available since the 1980s.
