Paying Contactless - Cashier swiping it themselves

phil675 · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:23

I was just thinking over the weekend at bars and fast food places in particular, I've given my card to the person at the till for them to take it to the card machine (one wired machine attached to the till for example), but they swipe the contactless themselves without me looking at the amount.

Are there rules about this sort of thing? I wouldn't want to pay for someone elses order or get ripped off because they swiped it without thinking.

Snookums · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:25

Just look at your receipt afterwards?

Feek · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:26

Check the receipt. It's not difficult.

tlrBeta · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:31

I wouldn't swipe without seeing the amount first, I never do.

One of the main points of doing contactless transactions is not to get a receipt...why do you need it for such a small amount.

I personally, never let anyone take my card away, that's another key reason why we have mobile card devices today.

Kronos · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:31

Don't hand over your card and of course checck your receipt which is hardly rocket science. But why anyone would use a card in a bar escapes me.

Janesy B · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:31

Definitely a scam.

Oh Ed not again. · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:36

I've seen it happen in a couple of places, and had it happen to me once or twice two. I've checked the receipt afterwards and it's always been correct. I think it's just a hangover from days gone by where you'd give you card over.

Haven't had it since I've been using contactless on my phone.

tom_e · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:37

Kronos said:
Don't hand over your card and of course checck your receipt which is hardly rocket science. But why anyone would use a card in a bar escapes me.

Because it's massively quicker now we've got contactless than to mess about with money and change.

sgavan · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:37

I would be weary of letting them take my card, probably unlikely anything wrong but why take the chance.

phil675 · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:41

sgavan said:
I would be weary of letting them take my card, probably unlikely anything wrong but why take the chance.

Some places I've been to you don't really have a choice, there will be one card machine and all the bar staff are queuing up to use it. Also for checking receipts, can anyone honestly say they know how much a drink order will be in the early hours especially if the total is not displayed on the till?

At least with contactless the limit is £30 so you aren't going to get majorly buggered, but the issue I have is in effect the staff are making the payment by using the contactless, whereas before you would have to input the PIN.

In case I've caused confusion, by swiping I mean using the contactless not the magnetic strip.

Edit: Oh and another thing, I've also seen mobile machines where they put the card in to do a chip and pin but the machine manages to read the contactless and there it's done. Seems a bit odd, I know the point is to save faff but I don't like the idea of other people using my payment method.

TS7 · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:56

I've never had my card taken from me to take to the till. The card machines are always mobile. Sounds bit scammy / dodgy if they state they need to take it away. The receipt won't really give you much information; it's highly unlikely they're going to scam you for a maximum of 30 quid. It takes a second to take photographs of both sides of the card, that's the concern

sgavan · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:59

Does contactless have a limit on how often it can be swiped, i.e. can it be swiped once then swiped again but they could just give you one receipt so it looks fine?

Deleted member 651465 · 4 Sep 2016 at 11:08

Whenever I've given my card to the cashier/barman etc, they've always asked for my permission to process the contactless payment.

I can't think of the last time they've had to take the card out of sight though. I'm guessing it has been years since that's happened with the advent of wireless EPoS terminals.

Orionaut · 4 Sep 2016 at 11:17

Kronos said:
Don't hand over your card and of course checck your receipt which is hardly rocket science. But why anyone would use a card in a bar escapes me.

I am sure that it wasn't that long ago where the use of cards to buy drinks at a bar was specifically prohibited.

I was quite surprised when I saw somebody doing so recently.

CaptainComedy · 4 Sep 2016 at 11:22

you shouldn't give your card to someone and let them take it away. It's so easy to clone your card there and then.

not only that but of course nothing illegal will show on your receipt, that's stupid.

They can easily swipe your card on a pocket machine / app on phone and you wouldn't know and it definitely wouldn't show on your receipt

Hxc · 4 Sep 2016 at 11:49

You lot are paranoid. It's fine, contactless has strong fraud guarantees in place. It makes paying in bars SO much quicker.

CREATIVE!11 · 4 Sep 2016 at 11:51

Cashiers are not technically supposed to handle your card at all.

I remember 10 years ago working in Tesco when I was a student, we used to take peoples cards to swipe them. Then the little chip and pin machines were implemented and we were never touching the card.

Reason of course is skimming.

Deleted member 66701 · 4 Sep 2016 at 12:22

sgavan said:
Does contactless have a limit on how often it can be swiped, i.e. can it be swiped once then swiped again but they could just give you one receipt so it looks fine?

You can't have two consecutive identical swipes.

Haggisman · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:18

Orionaut said:
I am sure that it wasn't that long ago where the use of cards to buy drinks at a bar was specifically prohibited.
.

Pretty sure this has never been a thing... (Except for an individual premises policy)

TheVoice · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:34

Orionaut said:
I am sure that it wasn't that long ago where the use of cards to buy drinks at a bar was specifically prohibited.

I can say with a good level of certainty that that's never been the case.

And specifically prohibited by who?

Paying Contactless - Cashier swiping it themselves

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