@Anonymous wrote:
@Kforce wrote:
peking wrote: EVERY card in the UK is contactless. For UK-issued cards, chip and pin are required for purchases over 50GBP, but under that amount, you can tap and go. As no pin or signature is required, it really is a 2 second transaction. Good to see these secure technologies are making their way over here.
They are not "secure technology's", they are "convenience technology's".
This is to make it more convenient for you to spend your money and get more swipes.
However it also makes it more convenient for a thief.
If you lose your card or it is stolen and you don't know it. It can be used many time before
red flags go up. It does not require pin, id, or signature for small charges.
This easy fraud use, and potential access to personal data without the
physical card means "you are trading a few seconds of your time for less secure technology"
False. I'd suggest researching a bit before spreading false information. Nothing in the transaction world is completely secure, but contactless payments are as safe and secure and have the same protection as CHIP & PIN payments.
Are you saying if I got a contactless card, it'd be just as safe? If so I might get Amex Contactless.
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@Kforce wrote:
peking wrote: EVERY card in the UK is contactless. For UK-issued cards, chip and pin are required for purchases over 50GBP, but under that amount, you can tap and go. As no pin or signature is required, it really is a 2 second transaction. Good to see these secure technologies are making their way over here.
They are not "secure technology's", they are "convenience technology's".
This is to make it more convenient for you to spend your money and get more swipes.
However it also makes it more convenient for a thief.
If you lose your card or it is stolen and you don't know it. It can be used many time before
red flags go up. It does not require pin, id, or signature for small charges.
This easy fraud use, and potential access to personal data without the
physical card means "you are trading a few seconds of your time for less secure technology"
Well, if the thief gets your actual physical card, it does not matter whether it is NFC, has a chip, or just a mag-stripe. Only a very few EMV Chip cards require the PIN on transactions, so your concern applies to all cards that are not Chip+PIN, regardless of NFC/Contactless. My Diners card (made of Unobtainium) allows contactless purchases only up to a certain amount. I has instructed me to insert the card to enter the PIN for authorization for transactions above say $50. I don't know the threshhold but it's not large.
Even if it requires a signiature... yeah, my signature is really seriously checked for authorization when I scrawl on the electronic "signature reader". Not.
@Anonymous wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
@Kforce wrote:
peking wrote: EVERY card in the UK is contactless. For UK-issued cards, chip and pin are required for purchases over 50GBP, but under that amount, you can tap and go. As no pin or signature is required, it really is a 2 second transaction. Good to see these secure technologies are making their way over here.
They are not "secure technology's", they are "convenience technology's".
This is to make it more convenient for you to spend your money and get more swipes.
However it also makes it more convenient for a thief.
If you lose your card or it is stolen and you don't know it. It can be used many time before
red flags go up. It does not require pin, id, or signature for small charges.
This easy fraud use, and potential access to personal data without the
physical card means "you are trading a few seconds of your time for less secure technology"
Well, if the thief gets your actual physical card, it does not matter whether it is NFC, has a chip, or just a mag-stripe. Only a very few EMV Chip cards require the PIN on transactions, so your concern applies to all cards that are not Chip+PIN, regardless of NFC/Contactless. My Diners card (made of Unobtainium) allows contactless purchases only up to a certain amount. I has instructed me to insert the card to enter the PIN for authorization for transactions above say $50. I don't know the threshhold but it's not large.
Even if it requires a signiature... yeah, my signature is really seriously checked for authorization when I scrawl on the electronic "signature reader". Not.
Is this something new? I remember being able to use it for >$50 at Walgreens before.
I have not used it enough to say for certain, I only recall that on some transactions in that range, it did not accept Contactless and insists the card and PIN need to be used. Maybe it was specific to the terminal, hard for me to say.
The difficulty in testing those is, you have to be willing to spend $50 or more in hard currency to get a datapoint 
One of these days i'll try using my dual interface American Express card again. The problem I had with it, was that if the store had chip transactions disabled, then the wireless would look like it was working, and then fail at the very end, requiring me to swipe the card anyways. So, all of the time delay with none of the extra security.
The wireless only card I used to have, ie with no chip, didn't have that problem.
@NRB525 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
Well, if the thief gets your actual physical card, it does not matter whether it is NFC, has a chip, or just a mag-stripe. Only a very few EMV Chip cards require the PIN on transactions, so your concern applies to all cards that are not Chip+PIN, regardless of NFC/Contactless. My Diners card (made of Unobtainium) allows contactless purchases only up to a certain amount. I has instructed me to insert the card to enter the PIN for authorization for transactions above say $50. I don't know the threshhold but it's not large.
Even if it requires a signiature... yeah, my signature is really seriously checked for authorization when I scrawl on the electronic "signature reader". Not.
Is this something new? I remember being able to use it for >$50 at Walgreens before.
I have not used it enough to say for certain, I only recall that on some transactions in that range, it did not accept Contactless and insists the card and PIN need to be used. Maybe it was specific to the terminal, hard for me to say.
The difficulty in testing those is, you have to be willing to spend $50 or more in hard currency to get a datapoint
My understanding of the card network rules is that they're not allowed to impose any sort of limit at all in the US. Of course, there might still be terminals that haven't been updated yet.
On that note, I'm wondering if BMO is sending out updated Diners Club cards that will allow PIN to be entered over a certain amount (like cards from Australia and some other places). I'm kinda afraid to ask for a replacement card because I've had communication from their CSRs implying that their cards don't do contactless anymore. In any case, mine expires in like 7 months or so so I should find out soon either way.