Re: Contactless?
AC@12:41: You could read the next paragraph: "[America] is the only place I've seen "swipe'n'nothing" credit card payment, anyway."
Also, this statement is just plain wrong:
Contactless payments are authorised, the card provides the authorisation
That's not authorisation, because it's taking money without asking the account holder anything.
The account holder is the only entity who can authorise money going out of an account. If the account holder didn't authorise a transaction, that transaction is unauthorised by definition.
By (EU) law, you must be refunded if the bank permitted a transaction without that authorisation.
So you're genuinely happy that anybody at all can make multiple transactions, each up to %VALUE% (£50?) once they've nicked your card? (Or even without stealing it, instead remotely using the RFID to determine the card number and doing a few CNP transactions until the anti-fraud trips in and blocks it.)
Leaving you with the fun and games of getting the money back, perhaps bank charges (and even court summons) due to going overdrawn or having cheques, direct debits or standing orders etc refused?
For most people it wouldn't take many £50 transactions to do that - just one may be enough.
That sounds like a dangerously foolish idea to me.