Contactless bank cards

[David Walters]

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 8:54 AM, Ian Batten <igb at batten.eu.org> wrote:
> Moreover, the whole point about contactless cards is that they are faster.  I've used Suica (== Oyster) in Tokyo to pay for food and drink: every shop that does small transactions and is close to a station (ie, every shop) has them linked to their tills.  If they weren't linked to the till, so you have to trigger a separate transaction by keying the details into a separate machine, the advantage of contactless evaporates.  If someone's going to have to key details, then slotting the card into the machine is the least of anyone's problems.  So I suspect that contactless cards will only operate in thin transaction machines (those hooked to a till, with no means to initiate a transaction other than from the till) rather than as standalone devices.

That isn't the case. I've made contactless transactions in places
where the card terminal isn't linked to the till. Most National Trust
tea rooms and my local Indian takeaway for example.

David