E-payments widely accepted in Macau

Some 96% of the 176 shops surveyed by the Consumer Council accept e-payments, a survey conducted by the Council has found.

The survey was conducted between August and October last year. It covered 176 shops, among which 110 are in the Council’s certification program. Ten of them are accredited by the Council, while the remaining 56 are ordinary shops.

Businesses were asked about the types of non-cash payment methods that they accepted. It was found that Macau Pass is the most widely installed e-payment method in supermarkets and convenience stores in Macau. Some 92% of the shops accepted Macau Pass as a means of transaction.

Macau Pass is an electronic card payment system for settling small transactions. Similar products include the Octopus Card in Hong Kong and the Oyster Card in the U.K.

The second most popular e-payment method is AliPay from the mainland, with about 91% of the surveyed shops accepting it.

WeChat Pay, another popular mobile payment system from the mainland, has an acceptance rate of 74% across the responding stores.

As for credit cards, the three most popular issuers are Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay, which have a 68%, 64% and 65% acceptance rate respectively.

In the Council’s opinion, the acceptance rates are satisfactory. However, it reminds customers to be aware of the threshold set by some shops. In those shops, a minimum spend must be reached to pay by credit card.

The mobile payment systems developed by Bank of China’s Macau Branch and Tai Fung Bank were accepted by 36% and 10% of the interviewed shops respectively. AL