Turning off Contactless

Chino

eddddy wrote: »

What negative impact would it have on the retailers?

Chargebacks.

eddddy

Chino wrote: »

Chargebacks.

Chargebacks are for breach of contract. (e.g. I bought a pen using my contactless card and the pen didn't work.)

Stealing and using somebody else's contactless card is fraud.

Banks are liable for this type of fraud - not retailers.

username

Believe it or not, there are still a large number of major retailers who do not accept contactless payments as they are too afraid of fruadsters stealing customers cards and making small purchases to risk it.

Examples being? I would say pretty much 90% of the retailers I visit are contactless enabled.

The remainder don't have the capability switched on (for some reason or another), or don't have the terminal to accept such payments because the hardware is old, and no doubt the company is just 'sweating the assets'.

Eventually, they will have to accept contactless by 2020 so even if they don't now, they will do in the future. I think also a lot of it comes down to poor staff training and awareness, especially with those establishments that have the stand-alone portable card machines.

Some staff just shove the card in by rote and don't pay attention to what the screen says. There was also one young lady at our local Wagamama's that knew that they took contactless payments but didn't know how they did it.

The local motor spares place wasn't aware it existed on their terminal until I showed them that it did (I had left my wallet at home but had my phone on me as I was just popping out, but it had Android pay, and was just stopping by as they were on the way home). They would have potentially lost out on a sale if they hadn't taken the time to listen, and they were grateful that I'd taken the time to show them.

I never get why there is such a fear of contactless amongst the general public. I can't see people rushing to scratch out the chips and fry the magstripes on their cards, it's just another way to pay.

If you want to see a big example of how confident a company can be in the contactless payment, see TFL and the subsequent ditching of all cash on their buses.

Yes we've had the Oyster card for well over a decade and a bit, however, the fact that you can just ride the bus or train without having to buy a special card and queue up to load money onto it, or fumble for cash is pretty handy.

septemberblues

To make your card "contact less" just cut it! I saw this online and have done it myself, it definitely works. You only need to cut the edge of the cards once, about 1cm in, I cut mine near the signal bit, it stops it being contactless, and reverted back to just being a card you would need a pin for.

chattychappy

username wrote: »

If you want to see a big example of how confident a company can be in the contactless payment, see TFL and the subsequent ditching of all cash on their buses.

I agree with your post, but I don't think TfL is a good example. Confidenet? It is an arrogant organisation, effectively operating as a state-owned monopoly. They can tell their customers how to pay and customers have no choice to take their business elsewhere. Many people were choosing to pay cash up until the last minute - even though it was more expensive that way. Also, when contactless fails you can (might) get turfed off the bus. No option to type in your PIN. It suits TfL to reduce cash-handling costs and of course every year they make millions out of people forgetting to either touch-in or touch-out and getting penalty deductions.

Can you imagine a private enterprise - eg a Nero - operating that way? Telling customers that there is no cash option and no PIN option?

That said, I regularly use contactless and did so in Hong Kong/Taiwan before it was launched here. I would prefer the option to turn off the contactless feature just to avoid using the wrong card by mistake. I have no general fears about using contactless.

Lily-Rose_3

I am also struggling to buy the OP's claims.

If someone tried to grab my card to pay for their £28 worth of groceries, they would have been pulling back a stump.

Why would someone do this for items that are worth less than £30?

Biggles

Lily-Rose wrote: »

I am also struggling to buy the OP's claims.

I was assuming she meant the other customer accidentally picked up the wrong purse to touch the terminal, meaning it then had to be sorted out by the shop. That was the only way it made any sense to me.

She didn't actually say it was attempted theft.

DCFC79

Why was your purse on the counter OP ?

My wallet stays in my pocket until it comes to needing to pay and I pull 1 card out and pay with it, if its contactless and the retailer accepts contactless I tap and pay.

[Deleted User]

I have wondered how contactless security works with TFL

Originally wasn't contactless supposed to ask for a pin every 1 in 3 transactions (or more frequently if 'randomly' selected).

It seems to be a lot less frequent than that in reality, which is good because it's annoying, but my card often forces a card insert with PIN (even at major places like Tesco) quite often (I'd say at least 1 in 10).

Is that turned off for TFL's terminals? If so, surely they ARE liable for fraud. If someone goes to Tesco with my card and it forces them to put the pin in - they don't know it so give up and walk off. If they then get on the bus and don't have to put a pin in, TFL should be liable.

On the other hand, if I got on the bus and it wanted my pin, I couldn't enter it so got turfed off, I wouldn't be amused either. By not having pin pads they seem to have opened a can of worms for themselves....

Marmaduke123

I use my contactless card quite frequently, and I've never yet been asked to enter my pin. I'm interesred to hear this does actually happen!