Is contactless all that it's cracked up to be?

roadrunnertwozero15

Is contactless all it's cracked up to be? Anyone opted out of it? Anyone find it useful or useless? Do you have contactless but never bother use it and still do it by chip and pin?

I have a basic account but no contactless with the bank I want and I dunno if I want to switch to a basic account what has contactless if it's not much of a benefit?

robin58

The only benefit is you don't have to insert it and put in pin. It's quicker but unless you are careful you can start to forget your pin.

Every now and then you will be asked to insert your card and key in your pin number just to prove it's still in your possession.

The only downside is if you lose the card or the other half ' borrows' it, they can pay for £30 of goods a day until they are tripped up to enter the pin.

If you have too many around you who like to spend money , I would stick with chip and pin.

Best deal for contactless account at the moment is TSB Classic account where you get 5% interest on your account and 5% cashback on the first £100 a month (basically upto a fiver back) when you spend via contactless.

alanq

robin58 wrote: »

The only downside is if you lose the card or the other half ' borrows' it, they can pay for £30 of goods a day until they are tripped up to enter the pin.

It's £30 PER TRANSACTION. It's true that after a certain number of transactions or a certain spend since the PIN was last checked, a PIN check will be required. However, in my experience there is no £30 daily limit.

Plus of course if the other half borrows it, as with a non-contactless card, the card can be used for online purchases without any PIN check and without any preset limit.

PeacefulWaters

It's a convenience that saves me about 30 seconds a month in time.

I wouldn't see it as something I was missing out on if I didn't have it.

Ballard

It's very handy but I certainly wouldn't say that it's anything like essential.

For many years I've used cards whenever possible and contactless helps. I'm quite happy to use it for a spend of a few pence to stop me breaking into a note and it's at least as quick as cash in a busy pub. Previously I'd have used cash in both of these cases.

The only regular problem I encounter is in my local Tesco express where the machine beeps and the lights go out (on the machine, not in the shop!) only for the cashier to tell me that it failed and I have to try again. I've tried various cards there so it's clearly their terminals.

I wouldn't personally use contactless as a reason to change banks.

Robin9

As an infrequent traveller to London I use my contactless on the buses. No hassle.

Is contactless always accepted - there's no pin terminal?

dzug1

Yes - always accepted on London buses. AFAIK no check on how much you have spent until the end of the day

vacheron

I've never found contactless to be of a particular benefit to be honest.

For someone who works the way I do where you generally carry some cash and a few cards in your wallet then select which card to pay with depending on where you are shopping, you still have to find the card and take it out of the wallet anyway.

After this it probably saves 5-10 seconds tops (or even less given the time it takes to check the card for the contactless symbol).

If you are a bus/tube travelling, food on the go Londoner with one credit card in your wallet and don't carry cash/change then it could be far more useful.

I think to a lot of people it's a status thing as there has been talk that Contactless cards are seen as more prestigious than non-contactless. Checking all the credit / debit cards in my wallet now, mine seem to be split about 50/50

The funny thing is that the other contactless service I have used on occasion (Apple Pay), the presence or lack of contactless symbol has no bearing at all on whether the card is Apple Pay compatible. I've had contactless cards that aren't compatible with Apple Pay and non-contactless cards which are.

DCFC79

Ballard wrote: »

I wouldn't personally use contactless as a reason to change banks.

I wouldn't either, I see it as an extra. if the card is contactless then fine but all I care about is he customer service, the ease of use of the website.

apt

I'm using contactless quite a lot at present as I'm getting 5% cashback on a debit card and 3% on a credit card, but will probably go back to chip and pin when there's no financial advantage.

teddysmum

My present current account has a contactless card with no option to have just chip and pin,but I have only ever used it as the latter.


We are about to open TSB current accounts, for the interest and thought of using their contactless to gain the extra 5%.


However,for weekly grocery shopping there would be the hassle of splitting the purchase into amounts of £30 or less and likewise for petrol.


Thinking of contactless shopping, I checked at Tesco, to be told that they don't have the technology to deal with contactless purchases; very surprising.