I was just trying to use a Contactless card in my local Sainsburys only to discover that they don't accept them on the self checkouts or on the manned checkouts. Does anyone know if this is common across all their stores? Also are there any other well known stores which also don't accept Contactless cards?
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Sainsburys & Contactless Cards
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I've never seen a Sainsbury's accept contactless yet, although I expect that they probably will in the future. I'm sure plenty of major stores don't accept contactless, most notably stores where few of their transactions are under £30 (clothing, electricals, jewellery...).
GatwickDepress
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The supermarket I work at only got contactless fitted earlier this year. It seems to be a rolling project with no rhyme to the stores being upgraded.
Busaholic
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In my local Co-Op yesterday, the only one of the four tills that was actually manned wasn't accepting contactless: whether this is a permanent situation I don't know. In this same store my debit card has not been accepted (despite the credit balance being OK) on the last two occasions when I tried to pay with chip and pin too: I know now to take cash or use a credit card.
Marks and Spencer at Hayle doesn't do contactless either.
Marks and Spencer at Hayle doesn't do contactless either.
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headshot119
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Seems to be a theme with Co-Op at the moment, my two local ones, and another I use seem to have on and off problems accepting contactless on certain tills.
As for Sainsburys I've not been in one yet with contactless.
The big one off the roundabout does.
TheKnightWho
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We're getting it on the buses in Oxford, which is quite exciting.
Does anyone know how the Tube deals with the occasional mandatory PIN checks the banks do with contactless? I'm a bit concerned about being caught without cash if I'm used to just relying on card.
Does anyone know how the Tube deals with the occasional mandatory PIN checks the banks do with contactless? I'm a bit concerned about being caught without cash if I'm used to just relying on card.
There was a new process set up that stops this happening on TfL services, which I assume could be used elsewhere. Although wasn't it considered safe on the basis that there's a cap (thus limited potential damage).
How could it work on other bus services?
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How could it work on other bus services?
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Contactless for transport works in a different way. London buses no longer accept cash - so that wouldn't be an option if card didn't work there any way!!
You never get a PIN check and the transactions are batched once a day in order to effect the daily fare cap.
You can find detailed information about contactless for transport at http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/contactless_transport/index.asp
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61653 HTAFC
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The Tesco by me only rolled out contactless at all in the last couple of weeks, most co-ops have had it for a while as have the small Asda in Batley and the bigger one in Dewsbury. The town centre Sainsburys in Huddersfield I think has contactless but I may be mistaken.
Contactless these days covers transactions of over £30 too, if the retailer has payment terminals set up to use the Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method, which works with NFC-enabled smartphones and biometric ID to authorise transactions of any value. Sadly I don't think many shops do have this enabled yet; I wish there were a way of reliably finding out whether or not a particular shop has.
SS4
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Sainsbury's is the only major supermarket which does not have contactless round here. I cannot speak for the ones in town though. Asda got them recently and the tesco express I go to has had them for ages
True, but as you've said very few shops have this activated. I believe one of them is Pret a Manger, which is rather odd considering the bulk of their transactions most be under £30, even at their prices. Furthermore, mobile payments are still relatively uncommon. I don't have statistics, but even over a year after Apple Pay was launched I still get comments in shops from retailers who didn't know it was a thing.
I did ask in M&S about smartphone payments being available for transactions over £30, but I didn't get a clear answer. I think I confused the poor lady at the till
Busaholic
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Maybe it's just in the food hall that doesn't then - that's where I spend my money (but not by contactless)
TheKnightWho
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Thanks!
Busaholic
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Contactless will have to be accepted in every Visa outlet in a couple of years in the UK as it will be a requirement. Visa are apparently not concerned about negative reporting of various aspects of the card.
tsr
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Do you know if there is any similar sort of initiative which means all Visa cards will have to be mandatory contactless ones?
I found out a couple of weeks ago my local pharmacy accepts contactless card payments. I don't know if any of my local supermarkets do though because I usually pay with cash, but if I think on next time I go shopping I will ask just out of interest.
SS4
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I wonder who's going to stump up the cash for that?
Of course that's a rhetorical question as the answer is, of course, the merchant
Simple explanation: They have the hardware capable of NFC payments at Sainsburys, Ingenico 3000 series. However when they had them installed the firmware didn't contain stable/release NFC reader code, or they didn't opt for that firmware to be installed. There are backend reasons why you wouldn't have that firmware as well.
They have 1374 stores, let's say 15 devices per store, that's 20610 devices not including PFS & customer services. The average firmware update takes say half an hour, field service engineers at £30 per hour. That's £309,150 in time just to enable NFC - let alone travel, subsistence etc. And what is the benefit to Saisnsburys from spending a large chunk on that? Well, very little.
That's how these people think....sod the customer haha
They have 1374 stores, let's say 15 devices per store, that's 20610 devices not including PFS & customer services. The average firmware update takes say half an hour, field service engineers at £30 per hour. That's £309,150 in time just to enable NFC - let alone travel, subsistence etc. And what is the benefit to Saisnsburys from spending a large chunk on that? Well, very little.
That's how these people think....sod the customer haha
and self scan, pharmacy, optical, GM desk, clothing desk, kiosk, customer catering...
But what's the benefit to the card companies (Visa, MasterCard, Amex etc)? Well, they'll see an increase in transactions because contactless will take over card transactions. Using a Chip&Pin card for a £1 transaction is less convenient than cash. But a contactless payment is potentially more convenient than cash, so they can potentially increase their market share by encouraging cash users to switch to card. The potential payout for them is billions.
Benefit to supermarkets? Not as apparent, but pressure from the card companies may create benefits. They may subsidise the installation of contactless hardware/firmware. They may offer reduced handling charges to the merchants for contactless transactions. All speculative I must add, but there could well be pressure from the card industry.
Supermarkets can also project a positive image to customers with contactless - it's futuristic and makes the company look like it's keeping up with technology. As time goes on, contactless will probably become commonplace and consumers will expect contactless, so the store would likely want to meet that expectation. Remember, the retail sector is a crowded marketplace so customer satisfaction is important. Happy customers are loyal and spend more money. Whilst lack of contactless alone is unlikely to lose you many, if any customers, maintaining a good impression is nevertheless important.
Busaholic
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At present most (all?) issuers in this country will provide chip and pin only cards on request: I've now had two successive debit cards issued by NatWest which have no contactless capability as I am one of those with concerns about both theft and 'card clash'. I regret I failed to ask for similar credit cards when they came up for renewal, but I never use them in contactless mode.
district said:
Exactly this. There are probably another 10-20,000 units out there for Sainsburys if not more
Well quite, I used to work in retail IT field service & later at Worldpay, the payments company, hence why I know what I do - moved on now but the industry generally doesn't change. The acquirers will get the increase in transaction & thereby the increase in fees. I've already noticed 'request PIN verification' being dropped silently for the most part - I can make far more than 10 transactions via NFC & not have to touch the pinpad - in fact I don't think I've touched a pinpad in 12 months!
There are, at least as yet or that they will admit to, no incentives for retailers to install NFC kit or update their existing kit to the correct firmware. I am pretty certain that there WILL be such an incentive for everyone at some point & I would be very surprised if the likes of Tesco et al with millions if not billions per day had negotiated down their transaction fees already as a result of a rollout, in my experience the merchant account providers & acquirers can be lead into almost no margin on fees to gain transaction volume. Tesco have now begun updating all stores from Old non-NFC capable Verifone heads to the Ingenico ones with NFC, my local one has just switched. I'm a saddo, I notice this stuff haha
I will admit to being one of those who completely hates using pinpads now - I have my cards & my Apple watch has even overtaken them for payments, it almost feels like a liberty being taken when you are forced to use a pinpad - especially as I shop mostly at Sainsburys & get really hacked off with knowing the Ingenicos they are using are NFC capable but just not using it. Grrr!
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Xenophon PCDGS
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I am unsure of the legality of that. Is there still a law that says UK coinage that displays a representation of a monarch is still legal tender? If such a change to that occurred, would there be a need to consult the reigning monarch?
So your telling us you've not used your card for over £30 or at non contactless retailers for over a year. You tell us you worked in the industry but you've possibly missed a major point in this post. Every time you enter your pin be that for over £30, at a non contactless retailer, or a cash machine it resets the 10 transaction limit to zero. You will only get the 'request pin verification' for 10 consecutive contactless transactions with no pin entry of any kind in between them.
I also get 'angry' too. Obviously in a 'first world problems' kind of way, but it's still a pain to have to go into my pocket to get my wallet when I'm clutching my phone.
Sainsbury's joked on social media about it being good to be late to the party on CPC acceptance (my response was that it's one thing to be fashionably late, another to miss the party completely) so I guess there's no rush.
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