Non 'Contactless' credit cards are available! 24 July 2022 at 10:14AM in Credit cards 21 replies 1K views

sairy.gamp

As many (but by no means all) will know, many banks will upon request issue the customer with a Debit card that does NOT have the insecure 'Contactless' payment function enabled (they DO keep increasing the spending limit dont they ). What is less well appreciated is that some issuers will now provide the customer with a CREDIT card that likewise is 'NON contactless'. This is very useful if losing your card (and all the subsequent cancellation hassle that creates) is a worry to you. Vanquis and Santander are two providers that will provide their customers with a non contactless CREDIT card upon request. No firm (to my knowledge) offers you an 'opt out of contactless' option during the application process - you have to contact them afterwards. 

[Deleted User]

That's great but I suspect they won't last forever, contactless isn't going away and you can just leave cards at home and use something like google pay if you are concerned

400ixl

sairy.gamp said:

As many (but by no means all) will know, many banks will upon request issue the customer with a Debit card that does NOT have the insecure 'Contactless' payment function enabled (they DO keep increasing the spending limit dont they ). What is less well appreciated is that some issuers will now provide the customer with a CREDIT card that likewise is 'NON contactless'. This is very useful if losing your card (and all the subsequent cancellation hassle that creates) is a worry to you. Vanquis and Santander are two providers that will provide their customers with a non contactless CREDIT card upon request. No firm (to my knowledge) offers you an 'opt out of contactless' option during the application process - you have to contact them afterwards. 

Coming into the 21st century, most card issuers now have apps which allow you to turn off all of the different features individually giving you full control as and when you need it. No need for them to issue specific cards as its in your control anyway.

Usually you can switch on/off contactless, set the limit if on, control ATM, Online, In Person and importantly swiping features as well.

No need to limit yourself to a could of options when the world has moved on and what you want is generally available anyway.

TMSG

400ixl said:

Coming into the 21st century, most card issuers now have apps which allow you to turn off all of the different features individually giving you full control as and when you need it. No need for them to issue specific cards as its in your control anyway.

Usually you can switch on/off contactless, set the limit if on, control ATM, Online, In Person and importantly swiping features as well.

No need to limit yourself to a could of options when the world has moved on and what you want is generally available anyway.

I wish that were true. I have four cards, three credit, one debit, all from mainstream banks. NONE of them allows me to switch on/off contactless, let alone set a payment limit or set other options. So "generally available" it is certainly not. Perhaps I should at some point vote with my feet and change to a provider who does all that... but it's a real hassle and I'd rather prefer my current providers would "move into the 21st century".

Oblong1

sairy.gamp said:

As many (but by no means all) will know, many banks will upon request issue the customer with a Debit card that does NOT have the insecure 'Contactless' payment function enabled (they DO keep increasing the spending limit dont they ). What is less well appreciated is that some issuers will now provide the customer with a CREDIT card that likewise is 'NON contactless'. This is very useful if losing your card (and all the subsequent cancellation hassle that creates) is a worry to you. Vanquis and Santander are two providers that will provide their customers with a non contactless CREDIT card upon request. No firm (to my knowledge) offers you an 'opt out of contactless' option during the application process - you have to contact them afterwards. 

I cut my card just a tiny bit where the contactless icon is and then always use my PIN number to pay 😁

Oblong1

So once cut it won’t work contactless……

400ixl

TMSG said:

I wish that were true. I have four cards, three credit, one debit, all from mainstream banks. NONE of them allows me to switch on/off contactless, let alone set a payment limit or set other options. So "generally available" it is certainly not. Perhaps I should at some point vote with my feet and change to a provider who does all that... but it's a real hassle and I'd rather prefer my current providers would "move into the 21st century".

Which banks are they? In this household we have First Direct, HSBC, Halifax, Nationwide, Starling and Chase and every one of them offers all of the features. So that's 6 out of 6 covering traditional mainstream and challenger banks.

Lloyds, RBS and Natwest at least also do it. Pretty general to me and far easier than being limited to the banks that still do non contactless cards you have to specifically request.

As for cutting where the contactless symbol is. Would work I guess if that is where the RFID chip actually is and you do enough damage to it to render it non functioning.

Nebulous2

400ixl said:

TMSG said:

I wish that were true. I have four cards, three credit, one debit, all from mainstream banks. NONE of them allows me to switch on/off contactless, let alone set a payment limit or set other options. So "generally available" it is certainly not. Perhaps I should at some point vote with my feet and change to a provider who does all that... but it's a real hassle and I'd rather prefer my current providers would "move into the 21st century".

Which banks are they? In this household we have First Direct, HSBC, Halifax, Nationwide, Starling and Chase and every one of them offers all of the features. So that's 6 out of 6 covering traditional mainstream and challenger banks.

Lloyds, RBS and Natwest at least also do it. Pretty general to me and far easier than being limited to the banks that still do non contactless cards you have to specifically request.

As for cutting where the contactless symbol is. Would work I guess if that is where the RFID chip actually is and you do enough damage to it to render it non functioning.

Before the shielding wallets became popular there were a lot of instructions online about how to disable contactless. Apparently there is an aerial which runs around the card and if you snip it it doesn't work. What I  remember seeing was to cut a small notch out of the card. 

I've no idea if it works or not - I like contactless.

The only problem I've had with it is that I have too many cards and my wallet used to set off the theft alarm in some shops, including Lidl and Sainsbury's. I've started leaving some of them at home. 

jbrassy

I don't understand the luddites which are anti-contactless. I recently had a fraudulent transaction appear on my Barclaycard where someone had spent over £1000 on flights with Aero Mexico. It is not possible that this transaction could have been initiated through a contactless payment because the amount is too high. You also hear about scammers using skimmers to collect data from contactless cards. However, not enough data is handed over from a contactless transaction to make online purchases. 

Therefore, someone must of obtained my card details when I used chip and pin (probably during my holiday in Mexico). You can avoid contactless if you like, but scammers are pretty smart and will always find a way. No payment method is 100% secure. Barclaycard ultimately refunded me the fraudulent transactions to the penny, and issued me a new card. It was minimal hassle. 

As has been previously mentioned, the best way you can prevent fraud is to use Google Pay or Apple Pay as these apps use tokenisation which I believe is the most secure way to pay. 

In sum:
1- stop spreading nonsense myths about contactless;
2 - just pick the best credit card for your needs;
3 - use Apple Pay or Google Pay where possible.

TMSG

400ixl said:

TMSG said:

I wish that were true. I have four cards, three credit, one debit, all from mainstream banks. NONE of them allows me to switch on/off contactless, let alone set a payment limit or set other options. So "generally available" it is certainly not. Perhaps I should at some point vote with my feet and change to a provider who does all that... but it's a real hassle and I'd rather prefer my current providers would "move into the 21st century".

Which banks are they? In this household we have First Direct, HSBC, Halifax, Nationwide, Starling and Chase and every one of them offers all of the features. So that's 6 out of 6 covering traditional mainstream and challenger banks.

Lloyds, RBS and Natwest at least also do it. Pretty general to me and far easier than being limited to the banks that still do non contactless cards you have to specifically request.

As for cutting where the contactless symbol is. Would work I guess if that is where the RFID chip actually is and you do enough damage to it to render it non functioning.

So let's take First Direct. I do have a credit and a debit card from them but I have nowhere on the app or the website found a page to disable say the contactless feature or even to adjust its limit (just checked again). Is there a special page or some other trick to it?

Edit: And there also this:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/09/how-to-set-a-cap-on-your-contactless-limit-if-you-want-to-avoid-/

400ixl

TMSG said:

400ixl said:

TMSG said:

I wish that were true. I have four cards, three credit, one debit, all from mainstream banks. NONE of them allows me to switch on/off contactless, let alone set a payment limit or set other options. So "generally available" it is certainly not. Perhaps I should at some point vote with my feet and change to a provider who does all that... but it's a real hassle and I'd rather prefer my current providers would "move into the 21st century".

Which banks are they? In this household we have First Direct, HSBC, Halifax, Nationwide, Starling and Chase and every one of them offers all of the features. So that's 6 out of 6 covering traditional mainstream and challenger banks.

Lloyds, RBS and Natwest at least also do it. Pretty general to me and far easier than being limited to the banks that still do non contactless cards you have to specifically request.

As for cutting where the contactless symbol is. Would work I guess if that is where the RFID chip actually is and you do enough damage to it to render it non functioning.

So let's take First Direct. I do have a credit and a debit card from them but I have nowhere on the app or the website found a page to disable say the contactless feature or even to adjust its limit (just checked again). Is there a special page or some other trick to it?

Edit: And there also this:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/09/how-to-set-a-cap-on-your-contactless-limit-if-you-want-to-avoid-/

Its in my app and not hidden away, quite obvious really.

Load the First Direct app and log in - Select the top left Hamburger Icon - Cards - Set Limits and Controls

On the debit card it can control:
ATM Withdrawals
Daily Limit
Contactless Transactions
Online Transactions
Pin and Swipe Purchases
Gambling Transactions

You can also Freeze the whole card and manage the PIN on the Cards page in the app

Has been available for more than a year or two in the First Direct app.