Even if that were true a phone has security built in unlike your contactless card.
It’s gratifying to know that the Luddites are still alive and well in the UK 
1 Like
I have never disguised my luddite foundation. 
2 Likes
The FSA say there has been no evidence of any significant increase in fraud due to the last increase in contactless max spending limit, nor is it a big issue in countries which have already set £100 equivalent limits.
Under fraud protection rules, people can claim a refund if someone else makes an unauthorised payment from their account and cards also have an in-built security check so that, after a certain amount of contactless transactions, customers will need to enter their pin.
If people are worried about the increased limit, some Banks will allow you to set your own limits - I have never tried it but I found this list, published this month, by Age Concern :
WILL MAJOR UK BANKS ALLOW CUSTOMERS TO SET CONTACTLESS SPENDING LIMITS?
- Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Halifax and the Bank of Scotland, will be able to set limits and turn contactless off completely
- NatWest customers can turn off contactless function but cannot set a limit
- Customers at HSBC can request a non-contactless card but cannot set individual limits
- At Barclays Bank, customers can set spending limits on all transaction via the app
- Santander is working on an option for customers to request lower limits
- Nationwide Building Society members will have the ability to turn off contactless. It is planning to launch the ability to set lower limits
- Virgin Money customers cannot turn off contactless or set limits
- Metro Bank does not plan on allowing customers to set limits
- Starling Bank customers can set limits in £10 increments and they can turn it off entirely
1 Like
That must be a change of rules since 2003 when someone cloned my debit card and went on a spending spree in Los Angeles followed by cashback twice at a supermarket in the UK. I was refunded the spending spree in LA but not the cashback. The cashback happened AFTER the card was cancelled. So nice to know that you can claim but I wonder how likely you are to get your money back.
Sorry to hear you did not get all the stolen money back.
I expect the refund policies have changed since 2003, as the card payment systems have changed. I don’t know what the policies are regarding Cashback transactions which were authorised by a PIN.
My comments related to Contactless Transactions, which don’t require authorisation, and these weren’t introduced until 2007.
Chip & PIN cards probably hadn’t been introduced when your card was cloned either. They came in only a year or two before Contactless did - they introduced Chip & Pin to make it more difficult to clone cards.
Like all these security safeguards, criminals soon learn how to get around them - all the Banks can do is try to keep one step ahead to slow down the fraudsters.
Have you tried contacting your bank recently? There’s no “immediate” and the online chat with a human also seems to have disappeared. Try phoning your bank and the first ten minutes will be recorded messages saying how busy they are due to the pandemic etc etc etc. An “immediate” response just doesn’t happen!
The only way you can adjust your contactless card is to download the Santander app to your phone - this insistence to use mobile app’s seems to apply to many banks now.
I complied for Santander and have turned off contactless - remembering my pin number is easy so I’ll stick with that.
I am with Santander and have not as yet experienced the problems you write of. However, coincidentally I have to phone the bank about something else so will let you know how I get on. Santander have always been good for communications, perhaps that has changed due to the pandemic like a lot of other organisations? Time will tell on that one now though.
Santander no longer have online chat with a human - only with a bot, so you’ll be subjected to the “wait times will be longer than usual” message!
Good luck
Thanks for the advice and warning, I will post as to how I got on.
My Westpac app on my phone has a facility to cancel or report lost cards or report suspicious activity. As a last resort I can call into a branch. Bugger phoning them.
I’ll take a look at that Westpac app. As for calling into a branch to report a lost card - I’ve now chosen just one credit & debit card to use (from a choice of six bank accounts) and the nearest branch is at least a 30 minute drive.
Just down the road then?
Half way across the island!
@Lindyloo You were exactly right about the telephone service to be expected. I was offered the services of their ‘digital bot’ – ‘Sandy’, but no good as I needed to make a query about my account, details for using my mobile phone rather than the Debit Card, as it seemed to offer more security. Plus whether or not I had to make any arrangements to deal with another money matter. In all that took well over an hour, 45 minutes of this was just waiting on hold, with the same ‘apologetic voice’ every 25 seconds.
The telephone service used to be very good, answering within usually five minutes maximum, obviously that is no longer the case. There used to be a secure messaging system, that has now gone. All in all Santander is no longer as good as it once was. The only good point about them is their website for online banking, that has always been good and still remains that way.
Everything seems to be geared towards online or mobile banking, as with many other financial organisations. I reckon it’s not for the better either, other than of course better for the banks – less staff more profits!
Yes - Customer Service no longer matters. It’s as though people are of no concern any more. Tory party policies have infiltrated every aspect of our lives and were just sitting ducks waiting for every penny to be squeezed out of us! We really really need to massive complaints about this! Back to the subject of contactless payments - if your card is stolen and used by the thief - how long do you think you’ll be on hold to report your card stolen? If ever you’re on hold to a bank but can say one word to direct you to a human - say “fraud”…it’s the buzz word that gets you connected faster than anything else!
I’m just off the phone to my bank, Nationwide, and connection took less that 2mins. I solved a potential problem and my instructions will be confirmed by letter. I changed from Barclays to Nationwide when an in-branch transaction started to become impossible. No such faffing from Nationwide and I’ve been happy since the move about 4yrs ago. Considering I was a so called Barclay’s premier account holder, I expected better treatment than I received. Nationwide now hold all of my accounts and very professional they are too 
That’s about what it comes down to isn’t it, it’s appalling the way we are treated!
I am seriously considering using my mobile phone rather than the Debit Card now for payments, there’s a another layer of security using that. With luck that will rule out having to ever make contact with the bank for loss of that card.
That’s the type of service I used to get from Santander, no complaints at all for years. Now they seem to have gone the way of most I have used in the past. To be honest I am really sick of trying to live my life in retirement dealing with all these obstacles. None of this was ever envisaged 10-15 years ago, sadly though it’s very evident nowadays.
1 Like
It it wasn’t for my pensions and those for my wife needing some kind of a bank to receive the payments, we could manage well without a bank. Every bill we have could just as easily be paid in cash at the PO, but alas, so such cash payments from our pensions 