I’ve been using contactless only (no cash whatsoever) for 7 years and mostly phone payments for past 3 years, since TFL implemented card payments for the travel gates.
I’ve been looking for a chip implant solution that allows to clone a bank card but there aren’t any banks currently making an effort to make this happen, even though the technology is already there (like bioteq.co.uk).
I’d love if Monzo would be the first (again) to make this happen.
In theory, you can extract the contactless part of an Oyster Card out of it’s plasticy encasing - and can transfer the RFID (or NFC?) coil to other things.
There’s a few tutorials on it - I imagine it works similarly for card contactless too!
If I’m not mistaken. TFL won’t allow payments like that (bio-chips) as they need the card in hand for random checks. Pretty sure someone tried to take them to court about it because they got fined for not being able to show a valid debit/credit or Oyster card, but they lost the case.
This was from a press statement
“By defacing Oyster cards and then travelling with them people would be risking a penalty fare as passengers need to produce a valid, intact ticket when requested. Plus they would not be able to hand back only part of a card and be reimbursed the deposit or any value that remains the card.”
I really don’t think people should be doing something like that to their Oyster cards. You’re better off getting a payment wristband like the ones Barclays make instead, so you avoid being fined.
I know someone that already has a chip implanted into his hand. He has a card reader/writer that allows him to clone whatever he likes. I think he currently has it set to his bus pass.
It looks amazing - real Jedi stuff - but it’s not for me!
If some people wanna do that then great, I’ve seen articles about people who have already done this themselves. But it’s a little too … obstructing (?) for me? If my ‘card’ gets hacked, and I need to change it… or it gets damaged when I break my hand… I mean most of the reasons that I’d need a replacement card are still valid (bar loosing it cos that would be … gruesome), but each time I’d need to get sliced open again?
Did I say nope already?
Also - Monzo have many other things they are working on and need to get to a good place, ALL of them should be ahead of this on any list. In fact if Monzo are even considering this in the next couple of years I’d be concerned. An interesting idea that would generate social media/news but I can’t see how this moves the bank forward. How many people still don’t use contactless because they are wary/don’t understand it. I don’t think the mass market is ready for this.
It’s a simple rewritable memory. You can change the information on it any time. In fact you can have a new ‘card’ in 3 seconds. Think of this as a wireless usb drive. You decide what’s on it.