Transaction history of Paywave cards

[Roland Perry]

In article <70626272-A563-4B61-951D-E22C5166FBE6 at batten.eu.org>, Ian 
Batten <igb at batten.eu.org> writes
>
>On 16 Dec 2012, at 07:56, Roland Perry <lists at internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:
>
>> In article <50CD69D4.8060006 at iosis.co.uk>, Peter Tomlinson 
>><pwt at iosis.co.uk> writes
>>>>> [1] Only normal debit/credit cards accepted, I think, i.e. not 
>>>>>pre-paid cards.
>>>> I wonder why not.
>>> I'm told that they need online authorisation.
>>
>> To make sure they have any money in the account, I presume; they 
>>don't keep a running total on the card itself.
>
>But my children have bank cards.  The accounts they're linked to have 
>no overdraft facility (illegal to lend to under sixteens, and possibly 
>under eighteens) and routinely towards the end of the months have 
>balances substantially less than a day's travel in London.   The 
>distinction between those cards and pre-pay cards seems pretty tenuous.

Not really. The banks know where your children live, so if they run up 
an unauthorised overdraft - or possibly if they have to refuse a payment 
to TfL that would create an overdraft - they can come after them.

Whereas a prepay card is just something an anonymous bloke bought from a 
booth at an airport.

Alternatively, maybe your children's cards have a flag that says "always 
authenticate online", which means it's yet another class of Paywave that 
the TfL buses won't be accepting.

>   I don't see that pre-pay cards are uniquely, or even substantially, 
>the "insufficient funds" problem.  I suppose a pre-pay card has no 
>reliable user information, and therefore you can't pursue them for 
>non-payment, but realistically TfL is hardly going to start suing 
>people for refused debit card transactions for a couple of quid 
>(especially if they're not UK citizens/residents).

No, but if such cards become a well known loophole, they could lose 
large amounts.
-- 
Roland Perry