Credit Card "Contactless" Payments

There was a lot of discussion a couple of years ago when certain CC companies (notably Barclaycard, I think) introduced cards which could do small transaction (£10 or £20) just by waving them near a reader, without any need for a PIN. There was much disquiet at the time about the possibility of accumulating erroneous charges just by walking past a reader with a card in your pocket - quite apart from the prospect of anyone who stole your card being able to carry our multiple small transactions unfettered. There was talk of lead-lined wallets to avoid accidental use.

At the time, I cancelled my Barclaycard account because I didn't like the idea of contactless transactions.

Now - blow me - I've just received a replacement Capital One card with the same "feature". It was issued, even though the old one hadn't expired, on the pretext of guarding against some unspecified security risk, claiming that my card details "may" have fallen into the wrong hands. I suspect that this is simply an excuse to enable them to roll out the new type of card, since I can still use the old card until I validate the new one.

What are the current thoughts on this technology? Is it as risky as was first thought, or were the fears over-hyped? Do any of you have any experience - good or bad - of this feature?
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom checked.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: When Encounter Racism! (OT)
    ... AVS is only available for the U.S. and partially available in four ... "AVS is designed to give the merchant additional information to raise the ... card orders OVER THE PHONE or through MAIL. ... Righto, for key-entered card transactions, zip code is a given, while I've ...
    (soc.culture.thai)
  • Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card
    ... Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card ... Companies to Report Transactions to the Government ... this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, ...
    (alt.marketing.online.ebay)
  • Re: Online Shopping Contract Advice
    ... The first few obviously dodgy transactions I had were from ... If a retailer suffers ... in card fraud, but that's the truth and that's just the way it is. ... then it seems to me the card issuer would be ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: When Encounter Racism! (OT)
    ... AVS is only available for the U.S. and partially available in four ... card orders OVER THE PHONE or through MAIL. ... when accepting a purchase in person when the magnetic stripe of the card is ... to make their credit card transactions safer and more profitable. ...
    (soc.culture.thai)
  • Re: Credit card fraud
    ... there may have been fraudulent transactions on my credit card. ... I had never been,a nd my first thought was fraud ...
    (uk.finance)