Merchant Centre

What happens if a customer cancels a payment via ANZ?


What happens if a customer cancels a payment via ANZ?


Most NZ banks do not allow customers to cancel payments processed via Internet Banking. This means that there is usually little likelihood of a payment being reversed after the POLi system has confirmed that a payment has successfully completed. ANZ is the exception to this rule, and although you are still highly likely to receive payment you need to be aware of the risks of accepting ANZ payments

Read on to find out how this affects POLi merchants.

How are payment cancellations usually managed by the bank?

Banks in New Zealand don’t accept instructions to transfer funds unless there is every likelihood the payment will be made. So, when a payer confirms an Internet Banking payment they are making a final instruction to their bank to transfer funds to the payee. Therefore, as a POLi merchant, you should have every expectation that you will receive payment (subject to the normal bank terms and conditions, prioritisation and settlement processes).

The process is different for ANZ payments

UPDATE: 15 September 2016

ANZ no longer allows customers to cancel payments on the day of payment.


ANZ allows its customers to cancel Internet Banking payments on the day the payment instruction is received up to the time of the banks’ end of day. This is typically in the late evening. This Internet Banking functionality affects a small minority of POLi merchants as they can receive advice from the POLi system that a payment has been processed via ANZ but the POLi system is unable to advise you (the merchant) that a payment has been cancelled.

Find out more about ANZ’s Internet Banking service here.

So what does this mean for POLi merchants?

In practice the risk of payment cancellation appears to be very low. The risk does exist however so you should assess it according to your particular situation.

Current POLi merchants who are providing post paid goods or services (or pre paid services that can be revoked by the merchant) are typically unaffected by the issue as it’s handled by their current debtors processes.

If you are a merchant who is providing prepaid goods or service, you should consider the following options:

  1. Accept that the risk of payment cancellation is low and allow payments from ANZ customers. Reconcile regularly to track potential issues with payment cancellation.
  2. Allow payments from ANZ customers but implement business processes to ensure the funds are received prior to provisioning the goods or services.
  3. Do not accept payments from ANZ customers if there is insufficient time for the funds to clear.
  4. Do not accept payments from ANZ customers at any time.
For most POLi Merchant customers, payment cancelations are not a real issue. If you do come up against any difficulties though, remember to get in touch.


The POLi team
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Does POLi facilitate online debits from customers with dual signatory bank accounts?

Bank accounts that need dual signatures to authorise transactions

We are often asked whether POLipay can facilitate online debit payments from a customer’s bank account to your merchant account when the customer’s bank account is dual signatory.

“What does this have to do with me”, you ask? If you run an online business that deals with transactions from other businesses - this article is mostly for you.
In short, the answer is no. But there is a very good reason for this.

How POLi manages the transaction


Customers wishing to use POLi to make a payment to a merchant must use a single signatory Internet Banking account as POLi does not support dual signatory Internet Banking accounts. The reason for this is that in the case of a dual signatory account the first signatory logs in and lodges the payment, and the second signatory logs in independently and authorises the payment.  

As each step is completely independent of the other, POLi is not able to automate the entire payment transaction within a single Internet session.  For this reason,  POLi cannot facilitate any payments where two authorisations are required.

Most NZ businesses use a single signatory account


Before you worry that this is a problem, bear in mind that the majority of the 400,000+ businesses in New Zealand have a single signatory Internet Banking account associated with their business.  This means that those businesses can, and do, use POLi to make payments.

POLi has plenty of examples of merchants that operate in the business to business (B2B) space where their customers are successfully using POLi.  Some well known examples include Bunnings, Warehouse, Insurance & Savings Ombudsman Service, Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand Transport Agency, Farmlands and many merchants using POLi as a payment method on their Xero invoices.

So your business can too.

If you have a number of customers who only use a dual signatory account you could follow the lead of some of our merchants who have asked their customers to approach their banks direct.  They have simply requested a single signatory Internet Banking account to be provisioned specifically for the purpose of making POLi payments. Problem solved.

Don’t put off implementing POLi

Remember, the sooner your complete the installation process for POLi the sooner your can begin receiving Internet Banking Debit payments online.

If you need a hand with anything, just get in touch with us. 

We’ll be glad to help.

The POLi team

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