Non 'Contactless' credit cards are available! 24 July 2022 at 11:14AM in Credit cards 21 replies 1K views

jbrassy

Tarian said:

jbrassy said:

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.

"Luddites" ?
There's no need to be rude....
...... just because you " don't understand" !

It really is very simple.
A) Contactless allows money to be taken without explicit consent - similar to opening one's wallet and saying "take whatever you want".
I dropped a contactless card - which was then used twice within 15 minutes.
(By all means consider me flawed !)

In a restaurant, a waiter took my (unwanted contactless) card off the table and waved it without asking my permission.

B ) You say "minimal" hassle - for sorting out a theft.
The supposed time savings with contactless are negligible (2 to 3 seconds per transaction#).
To address the theft (above) it took 2 calls, together around 25 minutes to deal it.
"minimal" hassle ???

# A bar I used to use has gone cashless. Payments in cash that used to take around 15-20 seconds now take at least 20 seconds - often longer when staff have to wait for one (of several) pay device to be released by a colleague - then cannot get a signal.

C) Why should the rest of us pay (all-be-it indirectly) to compensate for contactless loss ????
How many Insurance Cos would compensate in full for theft from an open car or house door ???
(And if they did, what would next year's Premium be ?)

D) Banks are inconsistent.
Merely for viewing an Account online, 3 steps are now required.
In the same login session, for an amendment to a Payee detail or Reference, many banks require a repeat of one (or more) security step(s)....
...yet they are happy for cards to be debited with zero security.
It makes no sense.


Now please tell which theme I have written is a "myth".

We "luddites" (sensibles) could suggest that fans of contactless are reckless (or worse).
But instead, all we ask for is CHOICE.

In response to A: yes it's possible someone could nick your card and tap it a few times, but equally someone can nick cash from a wallet and it's gone forever. Someone could skim my card in a fake POS card reader and obtain my pin. Like I said, if you could use Apple Pay instead and leave your cards at home, then Face ID is required to pay for things and this issue vanishes.

In response to B: It was actually Barclaycard which sent me a text saying there was suspected fraud on my account. I text them back and they rang me. Phone call took 10-15 mins. Money fully refunded within 2 weeks and new card was received within a week. No drama.

In response to C and D : Contactless isn't going anywhere. It's called progress. In any case, the most common form of fraud is push payment fraud which has nothing to do with contactless. What is probably more costly for banks than contactless fraud is offering to send most people contactless cards and then a few luddites non-contactless cards.