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MSE Blog: Don’t let contactless cards make you look a fool

2

Comments

  • "I told them I didn't want ANY contactless cards as I considered them a liability and they are sending a chip and pin replacement."

    I told smile just the same thing, on receipt of a new "contactless" debit card, but they do/will not provide a chip and pin replacement. Therefore the card has been destroyed and will not be used. Consequently my smile account has been run down and everything transferred over to an alternative account where I believe the opt out is possible - at the moment!
  • dalesrider
    dalesrider Posts: 3,447 Forumite
    Rotti wrote: »
    Have only just picked up on this thread

    But you have managed to post the self same thing 3 times so far...

    As the point of this thread was keeping oyster and contactless together. STOPS THEM WORKING....

    How can a reader get any details :(

    Because keeping 2 or more contactless has exactly the same effect.

    As to any transactions taking you over your limts. Any charges would also be refunded by the bank.
    Never ASSUME anything its makes a
    >>> A55 of U & ME <<<
  • chattychappy
    chattychappy Posts: 7,302 Forumite
    I wish readers were more widely available/sold.

    In the case of Oyster, this would be very useful to check you have been charged properly. I know you can check online/at certain machines/at some ticket offices. But all these methods have drawbacks.

    Seems to me part of the business model is that people won't notice mistakes (be it by them or the oyster system).
  • grumpyx
    grumpyx Posts: 7 Forumite
    I haven't found a better forum than this one so I hope this is relevant.

    I can see the issues with wrong cards being used will increase significantly as contactless cards are rolled out. I don't believe the card companies have thought through what really happens. When I make a card payment, I take out my wallet (left hand) and hold the card in my right hand. For security I hold the card reader in my left hand so others cannot see the PIN I enter. The trouble is that the contactless card/s in the wallet held in my hand are now in range of the contactless /card reader and the under £20 payment will already be taken from one of the contactless cards and not the card I am trying to use.

    Solution 1: A confirmation is need to say Yes I want to pay with card xxxx.

    Solution 2: The contactless readers are physically separated from customers so that the contactless card that you actually want to use is handed to the retailer for them to scan.

    The quoted benefits of contactless payment fall down as soon as the wrong card takes the payment and you have go through the process of cancelling that wrong payment.

    The card companies never considered that consumers would have more than 1 card. As soon as you have a contactless and a PIN based card, problems can arise. Adding more contactless cards just make the matters worse.

    In the meantime card companies should allow customers to choose which cards they want contactless. Any support?
  • SnowTiger
    SnowTiger Posts: 4,461 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    grumpyx wrote: »
    The quoted benefits of contactless payment fall down as soon as the wrong card takes the payment and you have go through the process of cancelling that wrong payment.

    The card companies never considered that consumers would have more than 1 card.

    Usually, if two or more cards are together none of them can be read.

    I expect many people who have used these systems know how fussy the readers are about how cards are presented to them.

    Every time new technology is introduced we get a raft of horror stories about it.

    Mobile phones were going to give us all cancer.

    Chip and PIN was invented by the banks to steal money from us because purchases would no longer require a signature.

    I'm not too fussed about contactless either way. If you don't like it there's that paper and metal stuff you can use instead. Or you could perform surgery on your cards to disable the wireless feature.
  • grumpyx
    grumpyx Posts: 7 Forumite
    I was actually thinking of trying to pay with a credit card and PIN but a contactless current account card in my wallet being used instead. This appear to be the issue at Marks and Spencers. The pain of having to always check your receipt for the account used and getting the transaction cancelled if wrong or even worse finding out later, seems too much. Just confirming which card is to be used first seems a staight forward step.
  • SnowTiger
    SnowTiger Posts: 4,461 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    grumpyx wrote: »
    I was actually thinking of trying to pay with a credit card and PIN but a contactless current account card in my wallet being used instead. This appear to be the issue at Marks and Spencers. The pain of having to always check your receipt for the account used and getting the transaction cancelled if wrong or even worse finding out later, seems too much. Just confirming which card is to be used first seems a staight forward step.

    Similar issues were highlighted at M&S recently: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22545804.

    I guess this could be something to do with how M&S has positioned its terminals.
  • ianpop1
    ianpop1 Posts: 8 Forumite
    edited 8 June 2013 at 5:12PM
    There was a feature on Radio2 Simon Mayo show before Christmas about this and a British inventor was talking about a new invention that goes in your wallet next to your cards and stops anything reading them when you dont want. Found a company online called Gizmopromotions that had a lot of info on the issue. It definately works I tried it with my S3 phone which has a free app on it that reads my contactless cards and even my passport. I know banks will try and be secure but only a couple of weeks ago a gang stole $45M from cash machines using cloned cards. Having had an ID fraud on my bank account 5 years ago I do not want to go through that again! Yes the bank gave me back the money but then it pretty much walks away. I found out that if you have a bank card related fraud you cannot report it to the police Its up to the bank to report it. The police never contacted me about the fraud on me despite it being several thousand. Cost me a lot of time and money sorting out and the bank had my account on a higher security level meaning it was a lot more difficult to use my OWN account. Any way my card shield works and no need for a heavy metal wallet or scrappy foil.
  • Get one of THESE.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 2,175 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Name Dropper
    I've got so many contactless cards in my wallet that tapping the whole thing on a reader makes the whole checkout go boom ;)
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