Contactless card payments...how is this progress ??

HAL9000

I believe your bank can disable the contactless capability if you request it. Doing this means you (or a thief) will always need the PIN.

Also, I guess a thief doesn't actually have to steal your card. He just needs to carry a card reader to take £30 at a time by brushing against peoples' pockets, handbags, etc.

Bidley

ThePrettyDamned said:

Means I tend not to carry cash.

What's the point in cash again? 

Cash is untraceable and is a big part of our (slowly but surely eroding) liberty.

That said, I rarely carry cash. Only if I go out on the beers.

WezV

holnrew said:

In just annoyed they're contactless but media around them talk about tapping them, which is contact.

You don't actually have to tap it on the reader, it's just easier than waving it very very close 

digitalscream

There's a downside to it (although it's an upside for the card issuers) - contactless transactions usually don't show up in your available balance or your statement for a couple of days, thus fooling you into thinking you've got more money than you have...thus encouraging you to spend more.

I don't use contactless for that very reason.

Bucket

In my old job, we had a frequent problem with shoplifters. One was particularly idiotic one evening:

He stood at a self-service checkout, requesting my help. He had one £34 bottle of champagne. I went over and he said "I found this contactless card and it doesn't work". I explained that if it was someone else's card, it was illegal for him to be using it to buy champagne, and he eventually said "Right whatever, I'll hand it in, I'll hand it in", and tried to leave - he left the bottle of champagne he was holding, but another woman who was queueing up said "Look in his bag, I think he has something in there" - sure enough, the alarm went off when he got to the door.

By this point, more of my colleagues were on the case and about three or four managed to surround him and get him to surrender his bag. We discovered that, indeed, the bag contained a very large £55 bottle of champagne.

I suppose if you go through your life never paying for anything from shops, you wouldn't know the contactless payment limit is £30.

EricTheWeary

ThePrettyDamned said:

Means I tend not to carry cash.

What's the point in cash again? 

When I was in Holland this year I found that, outside of Amsterdam, it was quite hard to use a credit or even a debit card ( I think it's Maestro that's the only widely accepted one). Free wi fi was abundant , modern architecture, very prosperous looking places, etc, but heavily dependant on cash for shopping and restaurants. Apparently an attempt to reduce consumer debt. Mebbe that's a good thing. 

RaymondLin

digitalscream said:

There's a downside to it (although it's an upside for the card issuers) - contactless transactions usually don't show up in your available balance or your statement for a couple of days, thus fooling you into thinking you've got more money than you have...thus encouraging you to spend more.

I don't use contactless for that very reason.

Really?

I don't use contactless with my card really, its all Apple Pay but it shows up instantly, I even get a text 2 seconds after I tabbed it. 

BigBearKris

RaymondLin said:

digitalscream said:

There's a downside to it (although it's an upside for the card issuers) - contactless transactions usually don't show up in your available balance or your statement for a couple of days, thus fooling you into thinking you've got more money than you have...thus encouraging you to spend more.

I don't use contactless for that very reason.

Really?

I don't use contactless with my card really, its all Apple Pay but it shows up instantly, I even get a text 2 seconds after I tabbed it. 

I find that it always shows the amount taken in 'available balance' but doesn't show on the statement until couple days later (depends which shop you have used it in too).

Danny1969

Cash is still king in music pubs, you can use a card in a pub but it takes more time than cash as they will typically have 5 bartenders but only one or two card machines. In my local there's a minimum spend of £10 on a card so it's not ideal unless your getting a round. 
As a working muso I'm paid in cash about 80% of the time, only the big corporate stuff is BACS. I can see a day when cash is phased out though 

viz

Interesting possible fact: there is only 18 days' worth of cash in circulation. 

Fretwired

I'd say yes - you need to see where it's heading. I walked into Selfridges and looked at some Braun electric shavers - picked the one I wanted, waved my card, a draw opened with my shaver and I walked out of the shop past a long line of people at various checkouts. The word is automation - if you know what you want you can buy it without having to deal with an idiot shop assistant.

uncledick

FWIW a Lloyds contactless card will probably never work.  I've had two which always come up with 'not recognised' and customers who come into work with the same type of card get the same response.  Santander cards seem to go through.  

MattBanshee

vasselmeyer said:

Get the chip cut out and have it inserted under your skin. Then you can wave your hand over the sensor . Two advantages: very difficult to steal;  people will think you're a witch.

Lol at the lols - I know someone who has actually done this.

RaymondLin

OP needs to get a RFID blocking wallet pronto!

AlexC

Someone should invent contactless cash - best of both worlds. Then we wouldn't have to physically touch anything.

siraxeman

uncledick said:

FWIW a Lloyds contactless card will probably never work.  I've had two which always come up with 'not recognised' and customers who come into work with the same type of card get the same response.  Santander cards seem to go through.  

Well I've never had trouble with using mine contactless....I've got exactly the same green Lloyds debit card. 

HAL9000

MattBanshee said:

vasselmeyer said:

Get the chip cut out and have it inserted under your skin. Then you can wave your hand over the sensor . Two advantages: very difficult to steal;  people will think you're a witch.

Lol at the lols - I know someone who has actually done this.

He won't look so clever come the card's expiry date...

ToneControl

siraxeman said:

So you lose your card (I never have but surely many do throughout the land each year) and some dishonest bugger finds it. Thinks to himself "ah I can go and spend up to £30 five times today and each and every day till the card is reported lost and stopped" So for the ease of use to the card owner there must be billions of £'s lost on fraud that this contactless system now allows. How is that a forward step or progress?

I used to use fancy pieces of paper to buy things, when I lost one of them, someone else just used it, and I wasn't able to cancel it, and when I was mugged, they took all my fancy pieces of paper.

Sporky

HAL9000 said:

Also, I guess a thief doesn't actually have to steal your card. He just needs to carry a card reader to take £30 at a time by brushing against peoples' pockets, handbags, etc.

And holding the reader there while the authentication takes place. And to have a live card reader - the banks aren't going to let it stay live for long.

HAL9000

Sporky said:

HAL9000 said:

Also, I guess a thief doesn't actually have to steal your card. He just needs to carry a card reader to take £30 at a time by brushing against peoples' pockets, handbags, etc.

And holding the reader there while the authentication takes place. And to have a live card reader - the banks aren't going to let it stay live for long.

You're absolutely right. Just found this article which suggests it's plausible but unlikely...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/contactless-card-theft-users-warned-to-watch-out-for-digital-pickpockets-a6879796.html