Visa predicts 20 million UK contactless cards by end of year

Will VISA give those of us who are non-believers an option to have a non-contactless card? I do not want one. Does this mean that I have to give back all of my VISA cards?

The last thing that I need in a busy life is an arguement with a faceless organisation to discuss whether I used a contactless card at a specific location on a specific date, when they say I did and I say I didn't.

Mel Haskins

Hey Mel - you could always pay by cheque.

There was a power cut at Thames Ditton station on Monday so one could not 'tap in' with Oyster. NFC is 100% electric dependent. SWTrains staff seated comfortably in the waiting room said 'no problem, there will be staff at Waterloo who know all about this and will make sure you don't overpay'. The response at Waterloo (surprise, surprise): 'never heard of no power cut, mister, you should have got a paper ticket, now tap out and pay the maximum fare or we'll give you an on-the-spot fine'. A typical face-to-face experience with a faceless organisation. The assumption was that the consumer was lying and trying to evade payment, and with no proof in one's hand, one is at the mercy of self-appointed monopolistic (Thames Ditton is only served by one train company) authority acting under their one-sided Terms and Conditions, which have to be accepted on pain of denial of service. As for Visa's statements, the timeless 'well he would say that, wouldn't he?' hits the mark, or, should I say, communicates with the near field?

Visa: "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?" Timeless.

MasterCard: "What's a few pounds here and there to keep pace with latest tech?" Priceless.

Mobile Phone Companies: "Why NFC cards when we're going to flood the market with NFC handsets?" Pointless.

I'm not sure that I understand the comment from Keith Richbell in Sydney.

My concern is not how to pay, but the risk of Visa billing my account without my approval.

If I review my monthly statement from Visa and find items on it which I have not bought or approved, how do I contest these purchases if they have been made by someone (not me) waving their card over a contactless device?

I want the option of having a card from Visa that does not allow contactless payment.

Mel Haskins

@Melvin H:

Whether the card is contactless or not, you'll be billed fraudulently only if someone other than you uses your card, not their card. In this case, contactless or not, you're protected by credit card fraud protection guarantee and the redressal process is well established. 

The only added risk I can see with NFC card is if your card gets accidentally charged as you were walking within a few inches past an NFC cardreader that was being rung up for someone else's purchase. This is likely to be a rare occurrence although, if it does happen, Visa will treat it as "first party fraud" and all those arguments you want to avoid will happen. 

One cannot be sure of that. What if an unscrupulous individual developed a form of reader that they could secrete inside their overcoat using battery power? Then, on a crowded form of public transport, they could innocuously place themselves adjacent to other passengers whereupon, when the device detected a contactless card about the person of their fellow passenger, they would be alerted by a bleep into an earpiece, and could charge off 22p per card - try that on the 17.25 Waterloo-Guildford with every third commuter having such a card (20 out of 60, if Visa are to be believed) and you would be well in the money.