Contactless bank cards

[Bav]

Can you use them in Denmark and Norway ?

[newport dave]

Yes, and even if you couldn't, it would just require you to insert it into the machine and enter your PIN.

[hallasm]

13 hours ago, Bav said:

Can you use them in Denmark and Norway ?

This is the standard - most terminals are contact less and can be used for mobile phone payments as well like ApplePay.

[John Bull]

Dinosaur Alert.

 

My non-contactless card expires in a couple of months, and I've arranged with my supplier that its replacement will also be non-contactless.

 

I've never found it a great burden to put the thing in the POS machine & press five buttons.

But if I lose a contactless card, or it's stolen,  it can be used to spend up to £30-a-time until it's reported as missing.

Bank says the customer "has safeguards", but I remember when those same banks weren't recompensing customers for thefts via cloned cards, ATM devices and such, saying "it can only be used by the customer inserting their card and  entering their PIN or revealing their PIN to a third party - do you have relatives living with you, or do you have your PIN written down anywhere?"

And I do fear for my card when in the USA, where most cards don't even have a PIN.

 

Perhaps more naively, I also fear a contactless card accidentally or deliberately being charged for a transaction that happens just a couple of feet away, for instance the person in front of me at a checkout.

And I bear in mind the current spate of overnight thefts of keyless cars from folks' driveways, using little booster contraptions to take the signal from the key in a room to the car.

 

Technology's a wonderful thing, but the nerds always see to want to run before they've properly sorted out how to walk. 

I think I'll probably survive having to punch in my PIN each time 

 

JB 

(still living in the 20th Century)

Edited June 5, 2019 by John Bull

[jocap]

Oh boy, JB- now I'll be watching everyone in the queue at the local Co-op when I tap away for a loaf and whichever newspaper has Good News as a headline...🤥

Luckily I know most people in the village, and they'd be hard pressed to make many purchases at £30 a time round here... But I'm on my guard! 🐺

[calliopecruiser]

14 hours ago, John Bull said:

Perhaps more naively, I also fear a contactless card accidentally or deliberately being charged for a transaction that happens just a couple of feet away, for instance the person in front of me at a checkout.

 

All you need to do is keep your card in an RFID protection sleeve (or wrapped in tin foil) until you're ready to use it.  All my cards with that technology have their own sleeves, and then sit normally in my wallet.  You can buy a dozen for less than $10.   I was tempted to turn off the touchless option, but I've discovered some uses (that only can be used in that manner) that make it worthwhile for me to keep it. 

 

 

[DirtyDawg]

The main problem with the contactless cards, we call them tap cards in Canada, is the more you use them the easier it is to forget the PIN when you run into a Luddite merchant who doesn't have the tap/contactless terminals. 🤔

Edited June 6, 2019 by DirtyDawg

[The Viking]

Quoted from John Bull:

 

'Perhaps more naively, I also fear a contactless card accidentally or deliberately being charged for a transaction that happens just a couple of feet away, for instance the person in front of me at a checkout."

 

Accordingly to Danish papers, this does happen.

 

Edited June 6, 2019 by The Viking

[Geezer Cruiser]

I was going to start a new thread, but chiming in here probably works better. 

 

I used my phone to pay in Europe with American credit cards. Not only did that work for transactions under the physical card contactless ceiling (where PIN/signature kicks in), but some transactions above those went through as well based on my fingerprint as I. D. 

 

I did find it easier to tap the physical card in London for Underground travel than using a phone (carried it in my shirt pocket).