MSE News: TSB current account customer? You can now earn even more cashback

Katiehound

masonic wrote: »

Have you confirmed this is actually the case? It was stated publicly at one point but then later retracted. I've had my first failed transaction yesterday since starting to play the contactless game and will be able to confirm it when the next round of cashback is paid, but I'm expecting not to receive any cashback for my failed transaction that was completed by C&P.

No. I have just looked at my a/c and it says the same for all transactions : CD + card's last 4 digits so no way of knowing until it pays the bonus . One of those was certainly by C+P.
I was told on the phone about 10 days ago, and they even sent me a new card which I have not yet used.
Contactless seemed to be refused by certain shops every time! (which suggests it might be their machines)- and it comes up with some message about "security!"

colsten

I just bought 4 x £25 gift cards at Waitrose with each of my 2 contactless cards. I don't use either card for anything else. This is the 3rd month running I have done this with no problems, and no request to enter a PIN. So each card now did 12 contactless transactions in a row.

The cashier said she was surprised to see that I could use a contactless card 4 times in less than a couple of minutes for the same amounts. It's alright with me as long as it's me using my cards but it's a bit scary to think that some thief could have made those purchases.

SeduLOUs

I'd hazard a guess that allowing multiple contactless transactions one after another would be against the retailers terms with the merchants.

Fat chance of the minimum wage staff on the checkout knowing/understanding/caring about it though, but it does defeat the whole purpose of the contactless 'limit'.

colsten

What proof do you have for that unlikely theory?

SeduLOUs

colsten wrote: »

What proof do you have for that unlikely theory?

None. I was 'hazarding a guess'.

Why do you believe there is a contactless limit in place then if not to prevent people running up massive spends without any authentication?

colsten

Retailers never had any duty to put a limit on people's spending. The contactless limit is imposed by the card issuers.

SeduLOUs

When a retailer signs up to accept payments, they also accept terms and conditions on how to go about accepting those payments. If a retailer fails to follow these terms, then they could end up liable for the chargebacks if a stolen card has been used.

A quick Google brought up several examples of these sorts of terms, that indicate that splitting a transaction to avoid obtaining proper authorisation for the full amount (which is what you are doing when processing multiple contactless payments to get around the 'limit') then the retailer would be liable for any chargebacks relating to those transactions. Here are two of them:

http://www.worldpay.com/sites/default/files/Worldpay-Customer-Operating-Instructions.pdf
http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/business/files/Procedure-guide.pdf

As stated earlier, I suspect that it is in the retailer's interest to follow these procedures (or risk facing chargebacks), but the front line staff may not be aware of them.

masonic

It's a per-transaction limit. If the card issuer wished to restrict the number of contactless transactions a customer made per day at each retailer I'm sure it would be within their power to do so.

SeduLOUs

masonic wrote: »

It's a per-transaction limit. If the card issuer wished to restrict the number of contactless transactions a customer made per day at each retailer I'm sure it would be within their power to do so.

I'm not talking about 'per day'. I'm talking about standing at the till with £100 of stuff and just swiping the card 4 times. I would never have even dreamed of asking to do this as it just sounds completely wrong and against the whole point of the limit.

But apparently it's absolutely fine and acceptable, so maybe next month I'll go to pay for the big shop and ask for 4 swipes of my TSB card, 4 swipes of my partner's, and then put the rest (if needed) on my cashback Mastercard whilst trying not to look ridiculously suspicious in the process.

masonic

SeduLOUs wrote: »

I'm not talking about 'per day'. I'm talking about standing at the till with £100 of stuff and just swiping the card 4 times. I would never have even dreamed of asking to do this as it just sounds completely wrong and against the whole point of the limit.

But apparently it's absolutely fine and acceptable, so maybe next month I'll go to pay for the big shop and ask for 4 swipes of my TSB card, 4 swipes of my partner's, and then put the rest (if needed) on my cashback Mastercard whilst trying not to look ridiculously suspicious in the process.

I've seen people divide their shopping up and pay for some items separately, for example, when they are picking up some things for a friend or neighbour and want a separate receipt, or a group of students who each want to pay separately. It's really none of the retailers business why the customer is requesting to split a transaction. Of course the retailer can refuse, for example if they were too busy to mess around, and likely if you tried what you are suggesting above you'd get that response.

I've taken to doing more frequent, smaller, supermarket shops since this scheme was introduced. The net effect is the same.