Half of us now use contactless cards to pay in shops, bars and restaurants, but now Irish consumers have been warned never to hand over their card to staff.
Contactless debit cards work like a normal cards but with contactless functionality, so you can pay for items up to €30 with just a simple touch instead of entering your pin for each purchase.
Now however, the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) have warned consumers not to hand over the card for a contactless payment and instead ask for the machine to be offered allowing the customer to tap the card themselves.
“It is best practice that it is always in the customer’s possession,” a spokeswoman said.
“In Ireland, the majority of restaurants and many pubs now use mobile terminals, which means that the cardholder always has their card in their sight, and with contactless transactions the cardholder can easily tap the card, never letting it out of their hand.”
Earlier this year consumers were warned to be extra careful about where they keep their debit and bank cards amid fears that tech-savvy thieves had found a new way to get their hands on your cash, without even touching it.
Apparently, criminals in the UK were found to be using point-of-sale devices to charge the debit cards of unsuspecting shoppers and commuters.
After entering a charge less than €30, all the thief has to do is touch the device on a pocket or bag containing a wallet and a touch-pay enabled card and the transaction is charged to the owner’s account.
While we’ll be staying vigilant, Visa says that since the introduction of contactless payments a number of years ago, card fraud has remained at historic low levels.
If you believe you may have been a victim of fraud, contact your bank or credit card company immediately.
