On Wed, 17 Sep 2014 17:39:15 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
One possibility is that while they won't be able to get a balance from
the bank in the milliseconds it takes to touch in, maybe by at least
overnight they'll know to blacklist such a card's future use.

I don't know how contactless works at the backend but I very much doubt
if they obtain a banks yes/no on each touch. There simply wouldn't be time
unless they're happy for each user to wait a few seconds for confirmation
which in a busy rush hour station I doubt is a good idea.

I asked the question because I opened a new account recently and received
a contactless card even before I'd made a deposit and I had no overdraft
agreement so in theory I could happily spend my virtual 20 quid and I can't
see how the vendor would recover the money since the banks computer would just
tell them to **** off when reconciliation is done.

--
Spud