Ask HN: What are your experiences with contact-less payment?

2 pointsPezmc13y ago1 comments

With the increase of contact-less payment in the UK, I’m finding that increasingly often when paying by contact-less card that the person at the till takes the card out of my hand and places it on the contact-less reader for me. Surely this removes all ‘security’ of contact-less payment?

In summary the process works as follows: 1. You’re issued with a contactless compatible card which features a logo similar to the Wi-Fi logo on the card: http://productreviewsuk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/barclayscard.jpg 2. The contactless compatible reader prompts you with a price, green light and if the purchase is less than £15 asks you to present your card for contact-less, else insert it as usual and use your PIN 3. You hold the card on the reader, wait for all the green lights to fill and then wait for an approved message 4. Leave with your shiny new item (or in my case lunch!) Here’s a YouTube video showing how it works if you haven’t had a chance to use contactless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBQjxY-3_uU&feature=player_detailpage#t=34s

I know how to use these readers, I actually think it’s very clear and easy to use. I’ll wait for the prompt, check the price and then present the card for payment. However, as mentioned in my introduction, the person at the checkout keeps on taking the card from my hand and placing it on the reader, meaning I don’t have a chance to confirm the price, I could be paying up to £15 without my direct consent.

The problem however is that this is becoming the social norm, and when I've mentioned I’d prefer not to handover my card to the cashier I've been made to feel like I’m being deliberately awkward or taking control for the sake of it!

What do you think? Have you experienced the same thing? Is there anything that could be done to ‘fix’ this? Should cashiers be given extra training and guidelines on specifically not doing this?

1 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

eduardordm13y ago

-> That's not wifi, that's NFC. You could use a NFC connection to boot a wifi connection on smartphones, but this is way too time consuming.

-> Second, NFC card readers are not simple, that's not just RFID.

-> Contact-less payments without PIN input is authorized for a few merchants and require additional security measures (like sending a SMS for each purchase, etc)

Most larger stores have fixed pin pads pointing to the customer. It is not possible for the cashier to insert it for you, in fact, this is the PCI standard for pin-pads.