Skip to main content of page

Is using contactless safe?

Contactless payments are a safe, easy way to pay for things.

Why contactless payments are safe

  • It uses the same technology as Chip and PIN
    Your data is encrypted and your details are kept safe during every transaction.

  • You can't accidentally make a purchase
    The retailer must enter an amount into the payment terminal first, and then you need to hold your card very close to it. This means you can't accidentally spend money from walking by or being near the payment terminal.

  • There's a limit to how much you can pay
    In the UK, you can pay up to £100 (£45 for our FlexOne children’s bank account) in one contactless transaction. Every now and then, we’ll ask you to use your Chip and PIN as an extra security check and to use Chip and PIN for anything over this limit. There are different limits for using contactless abroad.

How we protect you from fraud

If we spot a suspicious payment, we might contact you to confirm that it’s you using your card. If we do, it's important you know it's us. You can tell it's us, because we'll:

  • always include the last 4 digits of your card in our message
  • never ask for your bank details, PIN, memorable data, passnumber or codes from your card reader.

What happens if your card is lost or stolen

If you realise your card is missing, please tell us as soon as you can – that way we’ll be able to recover the money for you if someone else uses it.

Report a lost or stolen card

Don't want to use contactless?

You don't have to use contactless to pay for something. You can put your contactless card into the card machine and pay using your Chip and PIN.

If you'd rather not have the contactless feature, you have 2 options:

  • you can change your contactless settings in our Banking app by selecting Manage Cards, then selecting Contactless, or
  • you can order a new debit or credit card with contactless disabled.

Order a card with contactless disabled

To get a replacement debit or credit card with contactless disabled, call us or visit one of our branches.

Current account holders

7 days a week, 8am to 6pm.

UK: 03457 30 20 11

Abroad: +44 1793 65 67 89

Credit card holders

Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm.
Sundays and bank holidays, 9am to 5pm.

UK: 03456 00 66 11

Abroad: +44 2476 43 89 97

How contactless-disabled cards work

If you have a card with contactless disabled, your physical card will be permanently disabled for contactless payments.

This means that if you need to make a payment in store, you can either:

  • use your contactless-disabled card with Chip and PIN, or
  • add your contactless-disabled card to your digital wallet (Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay) and check that contactless is turned on in our Banking app.

Note:

In some cases, your contactless payments may still go through if the merchant doesn’t check with us first. For example, on a plane.

If you’re sure you don’t want to make contactless payments, make sure you remove your card from your digital wallet too.

Loading...