Commonwealth Bank has confirmed that merchant access to cheaper methods for  processing contactless card payments is still not available on all merchant terminals it has issued to retailers.While CBA earlier this month became the third major bank (behind ANZ and Westpac) to give some merchants a choice on whether contactless debit card transactions are processed by Visa, Mastercard or Eftpos Australia, the service is only available to retailers using selected terminals issued by the bank.For many years CBA and other banks have directed or "routed" contactless debit payments automatically to the Visa or Mastercard networks for processing.Merchant choice routing gives retailers and other merchants the ability to direct contactless payments on dual network debit cards to platforms other than those operated by the global card schemes.Retailers stand to reap big savings through merchant choice routing because Eftpos is considerably cheaper than Visa and Mastercard for processing contactless debit transactions above $30.However, thousands of CBA merchants are set to miss out on potential savings because the bank has excluded the service on some pricing plans and devices.According to the CBA's website, merchant choice routing can only be accessed by merchants on "interchange plus pricing plans"  who use an "Essential Lite" or "Essential Plus" device.Among those set to miss out are 100,000 merchants who use CBA's multi-function tablet terminal, known as Albert."Merchant choice routing is available to CommBank customers with an Interchange Plus pricing plan and an Essential Lite or Essential Plus device," the bank tells business customers on its website."If your business has a Simple Merchant Plan you already pay a fixed monthly fee for your terminal and included transactions, regardless of network and card type. This means merchant choice routing won't be relevant for you."When CBA announced the launch of merchant choice routing on 1 July, its press release did not mention that it would only be available on selected devices and plans.The media release gave the impression that all merchant devices issued by the bank offered the merchant routing capability."It's another example of our commitment to delivering simpler, easier payment experiences and that includes giving our business customers more choice and control in how they receive payments," said CBA executive Sam Itzcovitz at the time.A CBA spokesperson confirmed last night that the routing functionality would not be rolled out to other plans and devices until the end of the year."In late 2019 merchant choice routing will be available to merchant customers with other CommBank terminals and third-party owned devices," the spokesperson said.While thousands of retailers will be forced to wait until the end of the year before the bank makes the service available to them, CBA's version of merchant routing is almost certain to deliver deeper cost savings than ANZ's offer.CBA enables eligible merchants to route transactions through multiple networks based on value parameters.For example, eligible CBA merchants can select Mastercard to process all transactions below $30 and also nominate Eftpos to handle payments above that value.ANZ is offering a cruder form of merchant choice routing that does not