Can money be taken from a debit card without authorisation?

**Timbuk2**

Normally, I would have said no - some sort of authorisation, be it signing or PIN, is necessary.

However, last weekend I found myself without enough Sterling coins to pay for parking in Newry. Rather than root for some, I just used my UB Visa Debit at one of the automatic paystations - inserted into the same place as the parking ticket. The machine just said that it was paid and gave the card back.

While this isn't a huge problem, I didn't think it was possible to charge to the card without some sort of authorisation by me - the most obvious being that there should have been a chip and pin keypad on the machine!

Does this happen elsewhere also?

unclebill98

All car parks are the same. I'd say the reason being is that the amount if fraud would be small and those places are full if CCTV and they've got your car reg. It also does not make a great place to target for fraud.

Jet Black

In Dublin airport you can do this too. Just put your ticket in, then card and without PIN or signature you can pay for parking. But they have your reg number and video all the comings and goings so it would be hard for someone to commit fraud without being caught. In superquinn when they first introduced self scan you could just swipe your card and pay for your shopping without PIN or signing for it. They have since fixed it though.

air

Personally I think it would be great if the banks introduced a policy of allowing transactions sub say 10 Euro to be completed just by swiping.
It would save a lot of time in shops, allowing really rapid checkout queues and negating any need to carry small change etc for convenience.
It could be limited to say 2/3 transactions per day to minimise any security risk.

almalahide

air wrote: »

Personally I think it would be great if the banks introduced a policy of allowing transactions sub say 10 Euro to be completed just by swiping.
It would save a lot of time in shops, allowing really rapid checkout queues and negating any need to carry small change etc for convenience.
It could be limited to say 2/3 transactions per day to minimise any security risk.

For a while Pret A Manger coffee chain in London would let you swipe if it was 5pounds or less but they stoped due to complaints from customers.

air

Pretty sad really, some people are totally risk averse and their lives suffer because of it.

unclebill98

air wrote: »

Personally I think it would be great if the banks introduced a policy of allowing transactions sub say 10 Euro to be completed just by swiping.
It would save a lot of time in shops, allowing really rapid checkout queues and negating any need to carry small change etc for convenience.
It could be limited to say 2/3 transactions per day to minimise any security risk.

UB are already testing Contactless Technology with Chip and Pin cards. A limit would be set by the shop as to the amount. Its aimed at Spars etc, so you can easily pay for your lunch.

air

Makes perfect sense and should have been available years ago.
My only objection is the civil liberties risk it poses but hopefully prepaid cards that can be topped up (similar to prepaid credit cards currently on the market) will be made available too.

dotsman

No different to using credit/debit card to buy rail tickets in this country. In general, most vending machines don't bother with authorisation, as the amounts are small and are usually situated in areas with high CCTV coverage, therefore very limited exposure to potential fraud.

air

Yeah except the IrishRail machines don't work for Laser cards - or at least they didnt for the first few years of their existence!

dotsman

air wrote: »

Yeah except the IrishRail machines don't work for Laser cards - or at least they didnt for the first few years of their existence!

They do now (and for the past year or 2 that I've been using them). I buy my weekly dart ticket with it.

As for inter-city, it's cheaper to buy online with a laser than a credit card (and then pick up the tickets on the machine with the card).

air

dotsman wrote: »

They do now (and for the past year or 2 that I've been using them).

Great, I gave up on them long since, cheaper & faster to use the car.