Newly fixed contactless activation

I see you can now use contactless for your first transaction, and the delay has been fixed.

I’m just interested to learn how you fixed it! I had assumed that it was an issue on the side of the payment processor, so was surprised that it was fixed by an app update.

It wasn’t actually fixed by an app update but by new chip settings in the cards we are now handing out (which have the same settings as yours does once you’ve done approx. £90 of contactless, offline transactions) - we wanted to put it in the release notes though so that you knew it had been fixed :slight_smile: Sorry if it was confusing!

1 Like

I’d like to know too, based on what I’ve been reading from the card over NFC, I had assumed that the first transaction being online chip and PIN was a requirement to, in the card’s own words, “personalise” (pretty sure this just means configure) the card for further contactless and offline transactions.

Usually the first transaction of a ‘fresh’ card needs to be online chip/PIN in order for the PIN to be delivered to the chip in the online response message. Cards need the PIN on the chip to validate the PIN offline. Most embossed cards don’t already have the PIN on the chip.
So as soon as the Issuer’s system has validated that first PIN online, they can deliver the PIN inside an “Issuer Script” back to the card/chip.

Yup, just interested as to how contactless transactions can now work before that “personalisation” response is delivered to the card (though that might be tied up under NDAs). I’m guessing it’s because all contactless transactions with Mondo are forced online so as long as the card is delivered partially configured with the various contactless enabled/online only flags and the issuer has everything lined up to respond, it can work.

The card doesn’t need to be personalized with anything specific to the person who receives it, so that process can happen ahead of time, before being given to the user.

There is no PIN entry with contactless transactions so the Issuer often does not need to send anything to the chip. They’ll wait patiently for that first PIN-based online transaction and then deliver the PIN for offline use.

Online contactless txns just need to check balance and card ‘freeze’ status.