Problem with TSB contactless?

Yorkshire_Pud

robin58 wrote: »

My TSB contactless works in every store I have used it in except would you believe Waitrose!

This store is the only place in which I have a problem in reading the contactless on a 50-50 occasion. This is over 2 stores.

The cashier in one of them, said that she has seen a notice on their notice board saying they are updating their readers this month.

I await in anticipation.

This is happening to me more and more at Waitrose and particularly in the last week.

It doesn't ask for PIN, it appears to be working then the card reading screen freezes and has to be reset. Just tried two TSB cards five times, then tried Co-op card worked first time!

So could be Waitrose ancient card readers or TSB or both:(?

Biggles

Seeing as this thread seemed to have morphed into a discussion on the TSB contactless card shenanigans:-

I have two debit cards that I use to spend my £100 each month and neither of them have been rejected once in six months.

The reason is, before I go in and do my spend, I put them in an ATM and use 'PIN unblock'. That satisfies their (suspiciously over-frequent) PIN use requirement and saves me time at the tills.

molerat

Mine asked for card insert in Lidl the other day, I used my 123 instead for the 1%, then used it successfully in Aldi 15 mins later so it seems it is not always TSB asking for PIN.

I have found £20+ purchases appear as pending on my account [STRIKE]and Brewers Fayre always shows as pending.[/STRIKE]
edit: just disproved that bit

masonic

molerat wrote: »

Mine asked for card insert in Lidl the other day, I used my 123 instead for the 1%, then used it successfully in Aldi 15 mins later so it seems it is not always TSB asking for PIN.

My experience has been that the limit is by amount spent since last verification rather than by number of transactions. So, if the Aldi transaction was for a lower amount, that could explain it.

I am doing a low value C&P transaction just before I hit the £50 mark and that seems to be working well for me.

LYLO

Just how much money are TSB saving by not having to pay cashback for contactless payments. My card is rejected for 80% of my transactions- the dreaded two bleeps and please insert your card. Therefore I cannot claim my promised cashback and have only once managed to reach the full £5 once.

masonic

LYLO wrote: »

Just how much money are TSB saving by not having to pay cashback for contactless payments. My card is rejected for 80% of my transactions- the dreaded two bleeps and please insert your card. Therefore I cannot claim my promised cashback and have only once managed to reach the full £5 once.

Not sure why there is so much variability in peoples experiences. For me I've established with some reliability that I'm asked for my PIN when I hit £50 spent contactlessly, while others have been able to spend £200+ without needing to enter their PIN apparently.

Perhaps TSB will adopt Andoid pay. Between that and Apple pay, most people would then be able to avoid this situation in the future.

MarkFromCornwall

masonic wrote: »

Not sure why there is so much variability in peoples experiences.

This is speculation, but if the amount that a person can spend using contactless before they are asked for their PIN is determined by a formula and that formula takes as inputs something like that person's total contactless spend in the past year and/or or their average spend per contactless transaction and/or what percentage the transaction is of their current balance, that would explain why we are getting such different results.

Katiehound

LYLO wrote: »

My card is rejected for 80% of my transactions- the dreaded two bleeps and please insert your card. Therefore I cannot claim my promised cashback and have only once managed to reach the full £5 once.

Several times I have had the card rejected and had to use the chip & pin facility- that payment still seems to be recorded as contactless on statement and clocks up towards the £100.
Proof of that will be later this week! My £11 spend in Aldi required my PIN input.........

masonic

MarkFromCornwall wrote: »

This is speculation, but if the amount that a person can spend using contactless before they are asked for their PIN is determined by a formula and that formula takes as inputs something like that person's total contactless spend in the past year and/or or their average spend per contactless transaction and/or what percentage the transaction is of their current balance, that would explain why we are getting such different results.

It's a possibility some formula is controlling things, but as I understand it, it is the card itself that determines when a transaction needs to be verified. The majority of contactless transactions are carried out offline, so this is necessarily so. To my mind, that means the cards would have had to be pre-programmed with some formula when they were issued. I don't believe there is a mechanism for a card to be reprogrammed at the terminal, judging from the specifications I've seen, and such a mechanism would be a bit of a security problem if it did exist.

masonic

Katiehound wrote: »

Several times I have had the card rejected and had to use the chip & pin facility- that payment still seems to be recorded as contactless on statement and clocks up towards the £100.
Proof of that will be later this week! My £11 spend in Aldi required my PIN input.........

It's not just me then. There are months where I have received the full £5 and thought it impossible having added up my contactless receipts for that month. I don't think that always happens, though. It may depend on what action the till operator takes - some seem to cancel contactless transactions that are running into difficulties and leave you with a standard chip and pin transaction when you enter your card. At least that's my best guess.