Comments: Update on previous issues discussed here

Interesting how big business never learns. Two large companies, Target and Home Depot, have had hackers get past their computer security with the result of at least 56 million Home Depot customers having their credit/debit cards compromised. Target had 40 million card compromised. Nice word "compromised." What it means is somewhere between 106 million and 40 million customers (I am sure some Home Depot and Target customers are the same people.) have had their credit information stolen. Who knows what personal information is encoded on those cards.

Posted by la peregrina on 23 September, 2014 at 10:24 PM

This may be all smoke and mirrors, but I have seen small ads selling metal-sleeved or metal-mesh-embedded card holders which *allegedly* stop the contactless aerial/detector in the card being interrogated 'accidentally'. That said, I'm hanging on to my uncontactless cards as long as I can.

Posted by Gordon on 23 September, 2014 at 10:24 PM

I'm afraid I am a great fan of contactless cards. Those extra seconds for people entering a PIN add up when you're in a queue behind them (getting on a bus, for example).
I cannot understand the reluctance to migrate to contactless cards. They're quick and easy to use (more so than cash in general), you get a statement of every transaction (not the case with cash), and the issuing bank has liability for any fraudulent activity (not the case with cash). (Assuming of course that you are not negligent - but in practice the banks pretty much always pay up unless people have been *really* stupid.) The cards are small and light (not the case with cash.) So what's not to like? I personally think that the tales of paying with the wrong card etc are really over-hyped.
I don't consider myself lazy, and I do keep careful track of my spending (of course the card helps here, by giving me a written record of each transaction). I don't spend any time at all on social media. Life's too short for Twitter!
Also, debit card??? Who wants to use one of those? You lose the cash immediately. Why not keep the cash and use a credit card with a whole-of-balance direct debit set up? If you have an offset mortgage account, you automatically benefit from the higher overall balance. And if you don’t, you can still do something with the cash before it’s needed to pay off the credit card balance. In full, of course!

Posted by Tim on 26 September, 2014 at 1:13 PM

What's a bus?

What's a mortgage? (cleared ours years ago by working out how to use free 0% balance transfers and offsetting)

Who said I use cash?

Cashback credit cards paid off in full by DD every month every time here. But NEVER contactless cards.

Posted by Blue Witch on 26 September, 2014 at 1:27 PM