No Contact Cards

[coccinelle]

Just a question to see if these cards also exist in UK. My bank is telling me my next Mastercard Debit card will be a 'no contact' one which means I don't need to put in a pin number or sign for anything up to 20€. This card can be used upto 50€ in a day without contact. I don't want this kind of card as anybody could use it and quite honestly seems to me a reason more to steal these cards as you don't need to have the pin number.

[VHG]

My wife had a "no contact" debit card from Barclays Bank about a year ago. She was so annoyed she closed her Barclays bank account.

She moved to NatWest (same bank as me) and now we have both been sent "no contact" cards for NatWest as well.

Seems you cant get away from them.

[Tilly2]

Do these 'no contact' cards look just the same as an ordinary debit card?

[Old_Geezer]

They seem to come with a sticker showing a symbol of arcs. But I don't think you can tell if you peel it off. My latest replacement was with such a card, I didn't notice what they had done until someone mentioned they were doing it. Not happy but can't be bothered to send it back and complain.

[coccinelle]

Quite honestly, I don't know what the good side is to these cards. Can you imagine being close enough to one of these machines and it cancels your card instead of the person who's buying? I mean how sensitive are these machines?
I'm not happy either.
By the way, thank you for replying.

[pretty_snowdrop]

All debit cards will be 'contactless' shortly. All existing cards will be upgraded when replacements/new cards are issued. The banks will reinburse you if a payment is made in error.

[sunny-dave]

The other problem currently happening in the UK is that people now have multiple contactless cards in their purse/wallet.

They wave the wallet at the terminal (as per the bank instructions) and then have no idea which card has been charged - so people are going overdrawn as money is taken from the 'wrong' account.

The banks now say you must keep your wallet well away from the terminal and take out the correct card well before you try to pay ... which sort of negates a lot of the points about convenience, as well as making you vulnerable as you wave wallet/purse in one hand and a card in the other.

Absolutely rubbish idea - and it now seems very difficult to 'opt out' entirely, as I used to be able to do with my Barclaycard.

[Old_Geezer]

One should not need to rely on a bank reimbursing. They should not force the risk/stress onto the customer in the first place. Once again the public is being forced to accept what powerful organisations insist on imposing.

[society]

What I see is banks are forcing people away from their business which makes no sense to me.

[AB Editor]

It seems like a good idea to me, especially for other people to use and get out of the queue quickly :)

It would be fine for store cards - i.e. you can only use the special NFC thingy in John Lewis with your John Lewis card, that way you wouldn't worry about the other cards getting confused in the wallet.

I say this... but I like cash :)

[rockyracoon]

I'm going to flip if I get one of these ridiculous things, I'll be checking my internet banking everyday to make sure something's not amiss. From the time you card goes missing to you finding out, some little scroat could have bought good knows how many boxes of fags to flog, you try proving to the bank that you didn't buy them :(

There should be a choice!

[ummmm]

It'll concern me as well. With the amount of people that come in the house (kids friends) I'd feel that I'd constantly have to hide my purse.

[rockyracoon]

That's a point Ummmm and another reason why they can shove it where the sun don't shine.

[daffy654]

http://news.sky.com/story/1099259/contactless-cards-app-reveals-security-risk

[sunny-dave]

I think you can buy wallets/purses that have metal shielding to stop NFC cards from working ... I'm googling as I write.

Won't help ummmm/rocky though - that will be a nightmare.

[SlackAlice]

I have serious concerns about these cards and if push turns into shove would probably refuse one and go back to carrying cash again.

They were so keen to force 'chip & pin' on us, now they want to imo downgrade the security on the card. Would always have to be on your guard against misuse or loss.

As rockyracoon says you try proving it wasn't you!!!

[Hopkirk]

Stop moaning you lot, and embrace this modern technology.

[pretty_snowdrop]

All banks are intoducing the system so there is no avoiding them I'm afraid.

[sunny-dave]

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[sunny-dave]

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[boxtops]

There was a thread about this the other day -DJHawkes has customers who pay this way and I understood her to say that the card limit is only something like £20 a day, and you can't just wave it, it needs to be really near the terminal.