How secure are contactless cards?

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You no longer need to hand over your card to the merchant so that he can swipe it to make the payment. New age cards come with contactless feature that allows you to pay from the distance as far as 4 centimetres. The cards are especially useful and relevant today, as with the outbreak of pandemic we all need to follow social distancing for healthy future. One question which is on the top of mind of many people is how safe are these contactless cards? What happens if it gets stolen and unauthorised transaction is made on your cards?

How secure are contactless cards?

There is a transaction limit on contactless cards. Earlier this limit used to be Rs 2,000, which has now been increased to Rs 5,000. This ensures that in case your card gets lost the loss is limited to Rs 5,000. The banks also give you an SMS or an email alert as soon as the transaction is made. Now, if that transaction is not made by you, you  can call up the bank, which will cancel the card and issue you a fresh card and then the disputed transaction is taken up with the merchant. Moreover, you can turn on and off contactless facility of your card through the mobile app. So even if your card goes in wrong hands it won’t work as your contact card is turned off.

Is it possible to intercept the card data? T. R Ramachandran, group country manager for India and South Asia at Visa, says, “When the card goes near the machine and is tapped near the machine, the card transmits information and these information includes the account number, expiring date of the card. And very importantly, transmits a very unique dynamic code that changes for every transaction. This unique code is different than the code, which is encoded on the magnetic stripe on the reverse of your card. So, a criminal attempt to use the intercepted data to manufacture and use a counterfeit card is not possible. This is because there’s a chip and there is a code, which changes every time the customer uses for every  transaction.”

What happens if  one has two contactless cards? The answer is the terminal will throw up saying there are two cards, which one do you want to select you then select one card. And only one of the cards would be debited, said Ramachandran.

Contactless cards are one of the safest and easiest ways to make the payment. So next time just waive and not swipe your card and take precautions.