That’s the other thing, isn’t it. I don’t see why they shouldn’t exist but I’ve yet to come across an ATM which accepts contactless, so if you do hit ‘cash only’ and you’ve only got your phone, you’re stumped.
With RBS you can do it through the app, tell it which branch/Tesco you're standing at and it will give you a withdrawal code.
Been handy a few times!
I actually got caught out with this earlier this week. I’d booked a room at an Easy Hotel (it was sub-£40 slap in the middle of the city centre, don’t judge me). Even though I’d paid in full online they still wanted card details,
Just as a follow-up to this: I provided feedback in a customer survey form, I've just had an email apologising and promising they'll take steps to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
could you take the chip out of the card and have it inlaid into a sovereign ring?
It probably wouldn't work as well. You can soak it in acetone to dissolve the plastic leaving the electrics behind, but there's thin wires running inside the card which act as an antenna and probably also as an induction loop to power the chip.
That said, I used to have a thing called bPay which was a chip exactly like a SIM card that sat in a clip on my watch strap. It was replaced by PingIt and then discontinued. Which is a shame because it was great. You can buy "wearables" like NFC rings but they're hella expensive for what they are. I'm still looking for an alternative, it's the one feature my original Huawei smart watch doesn't have.
could you take the chip out of the card and have it inlaid into a sovereign ring?
Oh, and, this is a tale worth repeating.
Back in the Oyster Card days, some bloke had clearly done just that and stripped a card. I was two strides behind him going through the Tube gates. He was dressed in full-on wizard regalia, robes, hat, and tapped in to the barrier with the tip of his magic wand. 👏
Either:
1) Travelling Light - Phone with £20 folded inside case.
2) Out for the Night. As above with Tyvek Paper wallet with 1 x card/cash
3) Actually buying stuff. Phone & old school wallet stuffed with cards & cash.
Never used my phone to pay for anything so this thread has shocked me a bit.
Have a small card wallet that lives in my pocket with a few notes in case phone lines are down and its cash only at the tills.
Do people really not carry cards anymore? I'm getting old.
The funny thing I laugh at my mum and dad who use cash for everything. I am becoming my parents 🙁
Next step I start to read the Daily Mail! ARRGGG
could you take the chip out of the card and have it inlaid into a sovereign ring?
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a Ticktac or Youtube video of that being done.
you definitely can do that, however its pretty pointless. For contactless the card has an antenna that runs around the edge of the card to allow it to be picked up by the reader. without that, the chip won't have enough reception to be read by the card machine
If you inserted the chip it'd work, but you'd have to position it "just so" over the physical chip reader
the only time I need to bring my wallet out is when visiting a national trust property as those backwards sods still won't put a digital card in place :/
photo works ok for carpark machines, but not for being scanned by a volunteer at a site
Never used my phone to pay for anything
Me neither. Don't intend starting to either.
I've had a tiny "clip" wallet for about a decade now, holds ~5 cards on one side and folded notes on the other.
Depends how often you spend >£100 or whatever the limit is I guess. Not often*, but often enough that it'd make it a PITA.
*most big purchases I'd just order online and get delivered, why waste half my weekend driving into town (or worse, and out of town warehouse) when I can order online and do something fun instead.
you definitely can do that, however its pretty pointless. For contactless the card has an antenna that runs around the edge of the card to allow it to be picked up by the reader. without that, the chip won’t have enough reception to be read by the card machine
Nope, it can work 'contactless', back in the days of oyster cards which are basically the same thing there was a trend to embed them in allsorts, usually harry potter wands.
Apple Watch. With two "cards" in my virtual wallet, one Mastercard one Visa.
I use a SECRID wallet. Fab item and very compact.
Same, great little wallet. I have a habit of forgetting my phone sometimes, so the habit of always having my wallet comes in handy. Even when I have it, I still often forget to use it to pay for things.
Guess I need to apply myself to embed a bit more of a effective habit in that regard.
Back in the Oyster Card days, some bloke had clearly done just that and stripped a card. I was two strides behind him going through the Tube gates. He was dressed in full-on wizard regalia, robes, hat, and tapped in to the barrier with the tip of his magic wand. 👏
This mental image has absolutely made my day. Thank you.
Despite repeated attempts to sort it I can’t make payments of more than £100 with my phone at the local Tesco.
You can if you use the 'pay in store' feature of the Tesco Grocery & Clubcard app. Single transaction limit is £250 or £500 cumulatively over 7 day period for all purchases using the app.
Your card issuer may have a lower limit, however, so this would take precedence.
It's remarkable the differences between countries. I've followed half a dozen people through checkouts paying with their phone to date in SW France. Most use a card, some cash and a few irritating people still write a cheque and the cashier still asks for their ID car and writes the details on the back for when it bounces. In Germany a lot of people still use cash, then it's cards and phones. In Spain the credit card dominates. I use credit card and cash, and still have a wallet or money belt.
I haven’t carried anything but my phone for a few years. The only issue comes when occasionally card payments aren’t working at whatever shop. That’s only happened to me twice. Emergency cash is helpful in this scenario. <br /><br />
This is in London. YMMV elsewhere.
I've ditched the full wallet, but my phone has a Magsafe Quadlock case with a magnetic slim wallet that carries my debit card, driving licence and Tesco Clubcard.
99% for the time I use Apple Pay, but I'm also covered for buying stuff, photo ID and cheaper sandwiches.
Something like this.... Amazon
Same, great little wallet. I have a habit of forgetting my phone sometimes, so the habit of always having my wallet comes in handy. Even when I have it, I still often forget to use it to pay for things.
how can you forget your phone? if I'm going somewhere I'll most likely need to navigate there (either on foot or it connects to my car via CarPlay); contact someone while I'm there/meet them; wish to have means of contacting people in an emergency (ie solo bike ride); play music; or I will need to pay for something.
apart from taking a bike round the block to check I've fixed it correctly I cant think of a trip out of the house where I dont want to have at least one function my phone provides.
I'm more likely to forget my shoes than my phone.
I hate taking the phone everywhere so just have a slim leather wallet that holds my card and drivers licence. Leaving the phone at home is bliss.
how can you forget your phone?
Because I've spent portions of my life without it, which I quite liked. So I have actively tried to reduce my reliance on it, so sometimes simply leave the house without it.
The world hasn't stop revolving yet so I don't sweat it.
What's wrong with a cheque-book? 🤷
This thread has amazed me. 2 pages of advice on whether or not a piece of plastic 8x5cm x 1mm is too much to carry around with you!
Do people really not carry cards anymore? I’m getting old.
Yes.... It's actually safer than using a card.
My.problen with putting cards in my pocket is that if I take something else out the card often comes with it and potentially is lost.
No such problems with my phone.
Nope, it can work ‘contactless’, back in the days of oyster cards which are basically the same thing there was a trend to embed them in allsorts, usually harry potter wands.
it won't work contactless reliably. RFID basically works with 2 aerials, one on the tag and one on the reader. The range is effectively a relationship related to the sizes of those aerials - make one massive and it can read a tag from a reasonable distance (see security scanners at the entrance to shops).
The size of the reader (and aerial) on oyster is massive compared to that on the average pin terminal, which means it can work with a far weaker signal (smaller aerial) from the card. A normal pin terminal has a pretty small arial (not much different to the one in your phone), so the card needs to be right on it to work with the standard amount of aerial. Take most of that away and you'll be really lucky if it works
Additionally, the rfid reader for a card has (I suspect) to provide a lot more power than oyster needs - basically the reader is powering the chips on the card and allowing it to encrypt/decrypt the payment information (and decide whether things like a PIN is needed). I suspect that oyster, being effectively treated as cash, has far less complex circuitry built in.
Source: I work for a company that issues payment cards
Tesco have a flat £100 limit on contactless of all varieties in our local store so the fortnightly shop needs a card, otherwise, I could go cardless.
Google and Apple dont have limits but do insist on your phone being locked.
Data Ive access to shows card to cash is 85% card where people have equal opportunity to pay however they want, except cheque. Of the card transactions 70% are contactless, 18% phone and 12% chip and pin. Phone is increasing, chip and pin reducing.
could you take the chip out of the card and have it inlaid into a sovereign ring?
All you need to do is program an RFID implant, problem solved.
And you do know a sovereign has a value itself? (albeit less than the metal it's made from)
Also, sovvies make you look like a total bam. I inherited one from my grandma and love wearing it for 5 minutes to bam my wife up*.
*that's not a euphemism for domestic violence for the non-Scots amongst us
Noted that Tesco have a silly low limit!
I did have a moment of anxiety a couple of years ago when I'd done a Christmas shop in Sainsbury's and got to the checkout with £230 on the handset and just my phone! But as it's often the case, it just wanted me to confirm my fingerprint (which the screen protector prevents) but there was an option to use my pattern.
Interestingly, my phone won't make any contactless payment if it's not unlocked, which I suppose is good seeing the latest craze of taking the terminal and tapping your mates pocket to pay for your pizza!
I tapped my credit card in my lbs and had to be reminded there was a limit (I normally use the phone). They then said they take contactless up to £10,000, they only stock one bike that's over £10k 🙂
Card in phone case... Don't see the point as if you lose your phone, you've lost the card, and it presumably makes it harder to ensure you don't tap the wrong device/card. I also try not to carry my card in my pocket as it tends to come out with keys etc and get lost.
But how do you pay for the C&H?
2 pages of advice on whether or not a piece of plastic 8x5cm x 1mm is too much to carry around with you!
My.problen with putting cards in my pocket is that if I take something else out the card often comes with it and potentially is lost.
Happened to me. I went out one night with card and phone, stopped for coffee on the way home and got a call from the bank asking if I'd got my card. They'd flagged it as fraud because someone had used it to buy KFC or some such five minutes before I used Google Pay 30 miles away. It must have come out of my pocket the night before, or the hotel maid had found it in the morning and thought "free chicken, fantastic!"
Since then if I do take a card it's in a slim card wallet (literally a fold of plastic with a pocket either side) and it lives in a different pocket from my phone.
Interestingly, my phone won’t make any contactless payment if it’s not unlocked, which I suppose is good seeing the latest craze of taking the terminal and tapping your mates pocket to pay for your pizza!
That shouldn't work in any case. You might need to unlock it for larger amounts or if you haven't done so in a while (I don't know the exact logic but it seems to want it most when I'm at the head of a large queue), the rest of the time it still needs to be awake. You'd have to fumble in your mate's pocket for the power button first.
I’ve colleagues who have coffee cups that are chipped.
Personally I prefer to pay with bullion, and one of my people carries it for me.
Years ago downsized to a minimal wallet - card sized, one debit card (I don't have a credit card), my driving licence and occasionally a folded up tenner.
Since lockdown even that only leaves the house now if I'm bothered my phone won't work for whatever reason or I'm away on holiday, etc. Everything else now is phone or online payments. Can't honestly remember the last time I used cash for anything other than a car park (and the car park change purse in the glove box is running rather low these days too).
I'm happy to be free of the tyranny of cash and cards.
(53 and a self-confessed geek if it makes any difference)
Popped back in to see if anything had topped the wizard story, it hadn't but I am going down the magsfe wallet route I think. Mous case and either Mous wallet of the one in the Amazon link.
@hardtailonly 2 pages of advice on whether or not a piece of plastic 8x5cm x 1mm is too much to carry around with you!
I think it was nailed though, and in 2 pages with an awesome story about a wizard, and without it descending into a political row, or a rant about the cashless society. I think that's a win.
Haha - I made the brave move to pure Apple Pay about 3 months ago - proudly leaving the house with no other payment method I felt pretty smug.
2 hours later I pulled up at the M6 Toll -
PHONE PAYMENT NOT ACCEPTED said the large yellow sign
oh 💩
card back in phone case now
@hardtailonly 2 pages of advice on whether or not a piece of plastic 8x5cm x 1mm is too much to carry around with you!
That's not the issue for me.... It's just because I find cards too easy to lose (pulling them out of jeans pockets when removing keys, phone, tissue, whatever>
😩
Just my card in my back pocket and my phone. I'd be a bit nervous with just my phone I think.
For a while I had a £20 note I'd take with me if I was going out on my bike, but I think I gave it to MrsSalmon ages ago. I'd probably get a bit of cash out if I was going somewhere a bit more back of beyond for any length of time, but I basically never carry any now.
Went to visit a pal south of Gloucester from Scottish Borders. Jumped in car, petrol station, phone out fill up done, services coffee and snack, phone out, pay, done.
M6 toll road go on explain why it will accept cards, but not phones. So pull off into wee building. Lass bills me and I pay.....yes by phone.
For petrol or meals where you’ve taken the thing already I’m sure most places would be considerate and helpful.
petrol stations have a process, and I can confirm that on an occasion when I forgot my wallet a restaurant was happy to take Mrs Poly's card details over the phone! In Germany when I discovered that they didn't take cards they weren't quite so helpful - but a sizeable tip saw "Paypal gift" to one of the staff who spoke the best English who then squared up with the restaurant. Never made the assumption that Germany was advanced again!
But how do you pay for the C&H?
I can confirm I have witnessed a card transaction (a small "sumup" type device) in a pub toilet for a small bag that appeared to contain a white substance.
I think I'd feel more naked without my wallet than my phone, and like R_M I'm used to not having access to it, so I don't miss it. TBH I'm completely agnostic when it comes to paying, sometimes it's easier on phone, sometimes I use card...'just becasue' The coin tray in the car hasn't been disturbed in months though as nearly every car park is on an app, and I've an emergency £20.00 that's been in my wallet since before Xmas.
I was in a cafe/shop in Lochinver at the weekend where they didn't take cash payments.
I was in a cafe/shop in Lochinver at the weekend where they didn’t take cash payments.
This isn't uncommon at all.
I was in a cafe/shop in Lochinver at the weekend where they didn’t take cash payments.
There was a rant going on related to a thread about cashless society on the local Nextdoor platform. One guy steemed in and said "Do what I do, if they don't take cash just walk out with your goods, I do it at Subway all the time" So I suggested he might have just admitted to theft. His response was "no, I offered cash, gave them a chance, so I can take the item" There are some very strange people around.
I was in a cafe/shop in Lochinver at the weekend where they didn’t take cash payments.
This isn’t uncommon at all.
I was working in DEFRA Millbank, a third of a mile from the Palace of Westminster, about 5 years ago. They didn't take card payments in the cafe. I didn't have cash - why would I, as central London as you can get? I went hungry.
