Re: Speculation and Rumour
"Card scheme (e.g. VISA, Mastercard) rules mandate online authorisation of contactless transactions I believe. So your contactless transaction in the US for example, made with a Tesco Bank issued debit card, will get referred back to the issuer for online authorisation. It should be they who decide if the contactless limit of £30 is applied, not the terminal at the merchant in the US."
This is not correct.
http://blog.imaginecurve.com/curve-explains-the-difference-between-online-and-offline-transactions/
"When you make a Contactless payment, because the cap is at £30, the merchant doesn’t have to be ‘online’ to process it there and then. They can choose to do it later that day, or even the following day in a big batch - which is what Transport for London does. They even go one step further and process next working day, so you could see a payment made on Saturday appear in your transaction list on Monday. In contrast, Chip & Pin payments are always online, and are processed there and then."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contactless_payment
"The UK (and the rest of the world) version of the contactless applications differ from the U.S. one. The UK version has the capability of transacting offline, based on the limit stored in the application."
Which leads to a situation where contactless fraud can can continue for months, even after the card has been reported as stolen:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2016/09/card-lost-or-stolen-beware---you-could-be-the-victim-of-contactless-fraud-months-after-youve-cancelled-it
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/dec/19/contactless-payments-card-fraud-after-cancellation-bank-account
Biting the hand that feeds IT
