Authorisation on Prepaid Contactless Cards

miller

Does anyone know what the authorisation procedure is for a contactless payment on a prepaid card? There surely has to be some check that the funds are available to be spent so a negative balance does not occur, but without sacrificing the speed of the transaction.

I have used my Barclaycard for contactless payments and it does not show up in "pending transactions" - presumably because there is no online authorisation like chip & PIN transactions. The contactless payment just turns up a couple of days later having been processed by the merchant.

reclusive46

miller wrote: »

Does anyone know what the authorisation procedure is for a contactless payment on a prepaid card? There surely has to be some check that the funds are available to be spent so a negative balance does not occur, but without sacrificing the speed of the transaction.

I have used my Barclaycard for contactless payments and it does not show up in "pending transactions" - presumably because there is no online authorisation like chip & PIN transactions. The contactless payment just turns up a couple of days later having been processed by the merchant.

They have online contactless. So the contactless transaction does still check the bank.

dalesrider

I have a 02 prepay contactless and its auths the trans at the time. So good it is I get a text as soon as it is confirmed on the terminal.

For normal debit/credit card they can/will be batch processed at the end of the day.

Hominu

On some prepaid cards, its possible to go into a slight negative balance. Once it happens, all further transactions are declined. What happens after that depends on the card and the T&Cs.

PaulW922

Authorisation is the same as if a PIN was entered - the fact it is contact less doesn't affect things..

Tupperware_Queen

I have an orange prepay mastercard which is contactless. The other day I used it at maccie d's drive thru, I knew that I would be left with 18p on the card after the transaction had gone through. By the time I had gone from the payment window to the final window to collect my order I heard a ping on my phone - a text message warning me I was running out of funds, so I'm guessing its pretty instantaneous ;-)

in_my_bumble_opinion

I've still to discover a place I can use my contactless card.

miller

reclusive46 wrote: »

They have online contactless. So the contactless transaction does still check the bank.

I'm amazed that it can check so quick (obviously even a small delay would affect the contactless "experience").

miller

in_my_bumble_opinion wrote: »

I've still to discover a place I can use my contactless card.

JD Wetherspoon is a recent one. As things in there commonly result in an odd amount of pence, it does speed things up not waiting for change (paying the exact amount in cash is probably still faster though).

reclusive46

miller wrote: »

I'm amazed that it can check so quick (obviously even a small delay would affect the contactless "experience").

It is quick in places that use a broadband connection. Online contactless can still take 30 or 40 seconds when a merchant is using a dial up connection. The Barclaycard PayTag (Sticker) also goes online and sometimes it takes upwards of 30 seconds to authorise.

Gromitt

miller wrote: »

I'm amazed that it can check so quick (obviously even a small delay would affect the contactless "experience").

For small transactions, the transaction will likely still occur off-line, going online seconds, minutes or hours after the transaction, depending on the vendor, card and the parameters of the application stored inside the card - the retailer will have a floor limit, and so does your card, so purchases over a certain value will take longer than purchases under a certain value. On some cards this limit may be set to zero. The terminal will not know the value, it will just process the result of the transaction certificate.