Poste Italiane has announced several innovations for 2023, which should soon become effective and will particularly concern PostePay customers.
I payments by credit and debit cards have now permanently entered the habits of Italians, thanks also to the legislation which made it mandatory, from 30 June 2022, for merchants to accept any payment, even minimal, through the POS.
A novelty introduced with the PNRR2 plan for the implementation of the digitization guidelines which provides for a broad framework of innovations introduced from July 2022. The obligation applies to all professionals with a VAT number, but clearly has a greater impact on commercial establishments.
Who refuses risk a fine which starts from a minimum of 30 euros to which 4% of the value of the refused transaction must be added. However, the legislation has not convinced trade associations, such as FederConsumatori, who have asked to revise downwards the rates from banks for each transaction, in order to make the measure more effective.
Over the last few years, the Government had introduced a series of measures to encourage the use of cards and reduce that of cash. The most famous was certainly the cashback systemwhich allowed all members of theMe app to recover 10% of expenses made electronically up to a maximum of 150 euros.
The news for Postepay customers
Despite the criticisms, the sistema del cashback has met with enormous success, so much so that it has been replicated in the formula since Italian post which extended the service to all PostePay customers. The cashback, in the formula created by Poste Italiane, allows the 10% refund for every 10 euros spent, up to a maximum of 10 euros per day.
Furthermore, Poste Italiane has entered into a series of agreements over time with some merchants which allowed access to further discounts for each transaction carried out with the Pay with PostePay and Postepay code systems. This initiative has also met with success among Poste Italiani customers who are happy to receive a refund, even if modest, for their daily payments.
Poste Italiane’s cashback system remained in force throughout 2022 and was confirmed in the first months of 2023. Unfortunately, according to the latest news, in the coming months customers will have to say goodbye to Poste Italiane’s cashback. It is not yet clear whether the elimination of the refund system can be replaced with new incentives for PostePay or Bancoposta holders, or whether it will disappear from circulation as happened for the one associated with the IO App
