Leaving credit card with staff member

noelphobic

I was just looking at the website of a new local restaurant. I was rather surprised to see the following:-

We operate waiter service to table, please settle on departure but leave your credit or debit card with your waiter/waitress when you start your tab

I've always thought that was a complete no, no. Plus, are you still supposed to do that even if you are intending to pay with cash? I can see that they want to protect themselves against people 'doing a runner' but I also think lots of people (myself included) would be put off by this.

Surely if some kind of fraud was perpetrated then you would be held liable for leaving your card with them?

planteria

it still goes on. i go to places where that happens, but as they know me i just get a tab opened without needing to hand a card over. i wouldn't worry about it. if i left my card with staff and my card was used fraudulently i'd fight to get my money back.

Hominu

Considering how easy it is to purchase items with a credit card, I never let it leave my sight, so if they don't trust me to pay when I've finished my meal then they don't get my custom. I know a few restaurants which are paranoid about this but they solve it by simply asking you to pay up-front which I have no problems with.

Its a lot simpler to try and prevent fraud than fighting to prove your innocence and trying to get your money back afterwards.

Prothet_of_Doom

a) Pretend that you never read their website
b) Pretend that you only ever pay in Cash (Take no cards with you)
c) Book a table
d) See how they solve the issue, and
e) report back here

spacey2012

If you had seen that certain phone app and how quickly it can take the details from your card via the nfc chip and camera you would never let go of it out of your hand let alone out of sight.
Basically 10 seconds and they have all the information decrypted from your card ready to be cloned.
The APP is banned but it is rife in fraudsters circles and despite what is said by card companies yes it does read "new cards"

noelphobic

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

a) Pretend that you never read their website
b) Pretend that you only ever pay in Cash (Take no cards with you)
c) Book a table
d) See how they solve the issue, and
e) report back here

good ideas but I wasn't planning on going there any time soon and don't want to go just to test them! It's on a Groupon offer and I couldn't find anything on Tripadvisor, which is unusual. I checked out their website to look at the menu and they do say they're new, so presumably very new.

izools

spacey2012 wrote: »

If you had seen that certain phone app and how quickly it can take the details from your card via the nfc chip and camera you would never let go of it out of your hand let alone out of sight.
Basically 10 seconds and they have all the information decrypted from your card ready to be cloned.
The APP is banned but it is rife in fraudsters circles and despite what is said by card companies yes it does read "new cards"

Mate that app takes barely a second, I've used it to show my friends how silly they are for leaving their wallet / purse on the side.

Place the phone atop someone's wallet and if they have an NFC card near the surface, bleep and your money is gone.

Barclaycard are by far the easiest to read, and don't even need decrypting. The barclaycard I received this tuesday is still easier to read (and requires no decryption) than, for example, my mother's 18 month old First Direct card.

Battleaxe44

In the States they take your card from the table, (in the places we eat) we go to the till and stand there while it is processed. Just call us paranoid. The cards get left with no-one full stop.

planteria

all fair enough.

with the above in mind, i would potentially go as far as to never carry a debit card.....as a payment taken from a debit card could well be much more difficult to recover. i only ever use a debit card to withdraw cash to buy beer with.

jonesMUFCforever

You could always ask them to pre authorise a reasonable amount when you go in and keep the card on you.
In this day and age I would not let the card out of my sight.

jpwjpw

I do this all the time in pubs, never had an issue. They don't have my PIN so if their was anything dodgy going on, I'd just phone my CC company and say it wasn't me.

Didn't think about contactless though. I hate these cards. Unfortunately, they are becoming the norm.

The NFC app only exposes what you can see in the front of the card though doesn't it? That info isn't that useful without the CVV number?