JoanA wrote:
Thanks for that our new cards are those contactless, mine only gets used online as I don't go out and hubby doesn't use that still using it with a pin, I don't think the stores where he uses it have the terminals for them yet.
Hi Joan,
Apologies if I come across as patronising but I just want to make sure you understand what the potential issue is with these cards, from what you said I'm no so sure you do?
As long as the cards are in your or your hubbies possession there should be no issue, the problem begins if one of you lose a card, or one or more gets stolen.
Because Contactless cards don't always require a PIN number to make a transaction they can be used by anyone without question, therein lies the problem.
For example, say your card is lost or stolen and you cancel it by phoning your bank, in normal circumstances that would be the end of the matter.
However, with a Contactless Card if A.Fraudster finds your card on the street some time later (possibly months later), takes it into a shop that accepts Contactless Cards and uses it to buy something, because of the way the system is set up it's highly unlikely he/she will be asked anything, they simply swipe the card over a terminal and the money is taken from your account.
On the odd occasion that the 'system' does ask for a PIN number I strongly suspect that the fraudster would simply input something random then when the transaction is declined tells the shop assistant they've forgotten it, hands back the goods, takes the card, and try's somewhere else later.
The article by MSE above lists the safeguards the various UK banks have in place to prevent this sort of fraud impacting their customers, it's disturbing how many of them have no safeguards in place at all.
It also appears from the article that once these cards are being used fraudulently the banks are completely powerless to stop it.
i.e. Even if the bank cancels the Debit Card number and closes the affected bank account the bank is still going to be hit with the transactions from the retailers.
Whoever thought this monumentus cockup would be a good idea ought to strung up
On a brighter note, 2 of the 3 replacement cards I requested with the Contactless function removed arrived in the post this morning... I took great pleasure in feeding the old ones through my shredder
