Contactless bank cards

ConfusedOfEastCheam

I was searching "I don't want a contactless card" about 4 days ago and found many many people asking the same thing including lots on this site. I did find an answer but could not reply as I had to sign up to this site which has taken days and note that I cannot post links to solutions until I have been active for some time!  

To assist anyone else there are instructions on a website called Autodesk Instructables under the heading of "Disabling Contactless Payment on Debit Cards" 

I found 2 versions, one by cutting through the antenna at the bottom of the card, which looks easy and another involving burning through contact on each side of the chip with soldering iron but that does look messy!  Nat West informed me that they will only issue contactless cards and will not give me a chip and pin.  they also said (almost laughing at me when I said that I did not consider tapping debit cards safe) "of course we will indmenify you if card gets lost" I don't believe that as T&C is quite clear that liability will only be accepted by the bank after you report card missing so if you don't notice for a while you will have to lose whatever the theif takes.  The letter that came with contactless card said my PIN will work with it, so no problem getting cash and then it said to make my first purchase using pin to enable the contactless. So I may have been worrying about nothing as I have no intention of ever making a payment with debit card, so will hopefull never activate it. My only query is when I use the debit card to pay for things such as topping up my ISA with new money when paying Hargreaves Lansdown as all new money to them is done by debit card not bank transfer.  Likewise when paying money to a recent Crowdfunding offer. So I will have to return to Nat West with more questions...  Unless anyone on this forum knows the answer?
BTW pasting in the heading of the article has made the font go large and I have no idea how to make it uniform on this site, which is really not easy to use! The Format button has just made everying bold!

WillPS

Issuers will refund you for any unrecognised contactless transactions in the event you lose your card, even if there is a lag between the fraudulent transactions and you reporting that your card is lost. 

Issuers manage this risk by enforcing an on-chip limit on the total or number of contactless transactions they will authorise before insisting on Chip & PIN.

You have nothing to fear.

Last time someone asked, HSBC Group was the only organisation still issuing non-contactless cards when asked for.

400ixl

Many banks have the facility to turn off the contactless feature in their banking app. The need for special cards doesn't really exist anymore.

Mind you, the risks with contactless are low. Even more so when banking apps tell you in real time when a contactless transaction is made.

Use a bank with up to date features and your perceived risks no longer exist or are in your control.

Vortigern

Paying HL or Crowdfunding is not a "contactless" function, meaning that it does not use the RFID antenna and chip on your card. It's a card(holder) not present transaction that you may need to authorise by one time password or via an app.

binao

Coins are germ carriers, dirty, hole makers.

Contactless is needed for many car park machines.

MrFrugalFever

I really can’t get my head around the fear and reluctance to embrace new banking technology, it has made things so much easier and convenient for millions. There’s features and functions to ‘freeze’ or ‘disable’ your card/contactless function with pretty much most banking institutions so the need for a non-contactless card is pretty much gone.

Embrace all that is good about modern fintech banking

oldagetraveller1

binao said:

Coins are germ carriers, dirty, hole makers.

Contactless is needed for many car park machines.

So are humans!

Really convenient at car park pay machines when contactless doesn't work because of a poor mobile network connection, by the machine, and you don't have any coins to feed the machine with!

km1500

Cut a 1.5 inch narrow v-shape notch from the middle of the short end opposite the chip. That cuts the antenna and disables contactless.

WillPS

I've yet to experience a car parking payment machine which accepted contactless but did not also have a CHIP + PIN pad.

They're also a lot more reliable now than when they first appeared, thankfully.

km1500 said:

Cut a 1.5 inch narrow v-shape notch from the middle of the short end opposite the chip. That cuts the antenna and disables contactless.

Also makes your card a pretty effective shank, which is fun for something you have to manipulate in differing ways depending on application...

Still, better a hand cut to ribbons than be a victim of all this contactless fraud that goes on but never gets discussed or reported.

born_again

WillPS said:

Still, better a hand cut to ribbons than be a victim of all this contactless fraud that goes on but never gets discussed or reported.

If only people did not cards, that would not be a issue 🤣

Contactless fraud is a very small % of actual card fraud.

oldagetraveller1

"They're also a lot more reliable now than when they first appeared, thankfully."

Only if the machine can communicate to authorise any payments.

Similarly with chip and p.i.n., useless without authorisation.

Now, where are those germ ridden coins I should carry to pay for parking?