Optional Non-Contactless Cards

Having the option to choose weather our Monzo Card is contactless or not is a feature I think that will be handy for a lot of people

  1. I often have my card frozen to prevent skimming, but this is no way for a card to be treated! Plus it will disable things such as Apple Pay. Also it’s not 100% full proof.
  2. I use a freedom pass for TFL and it is in the same wallet as my Monzo card, sometimes the wrong card get’s swiped, and freezing the card doesn’t prevent this.
  3. A lot of people use better authentication methods from Apple Pay on our Apple Watches to Google Pay on our phones and it is a lot secure and can often pay for more than £30.

Those are my personal reasons, feel free to share yours, and if you agree, please vote on this so the team will see it.

Yeah, I’m in favour of this. I’m 100% contactless or Apple Pay myself but giving people the option is completely harmless. Obviously some people have security concerns (some of which are kinda urban myths, others which are completely valid) and it wouldn’t restrict mobile wallet access, if they believe that’s more secure or they change their mind down the line.

Also really good for customers who want to give spending a bit of friction — obviously Monzo is already great for this in terms of things like running daily spend totals in notifications, but contactless makes spending so easy that for some people it can be hard to control. It’d be a good option both for those who just don’t want a card and more vulnerable customers :slight_smile:

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Other banks allow contactless to be turned on and off in the app, which would solve the problem.

Do remember, though, that the risk is small, and if your card is stolen or otherwise compromised, it’ll be Monzo’s money the thieves will be spending.

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This would only be able to block online contactless authorisations, which doesn’t really solve any of the issues people tell us they have with contactless (such as card clash). :slightly_smiling_face:

There would have to be substantial demand for us to consider producing a card without contactless.

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The “Holepunch Technique” should permanently disable contactless and solve card clash, right? :wink:

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Is there a way to corrupt the NFC or similar to stop it working at all.

I feel like instead of giving the option to disable contactless (because contactless and mobile payment should be embraced) for a security stand point. Getting rid of the card number, cvc and expiry date from the card would be even better. As when you have your card stolen, contactless will only allow £30 payments. Where as having the card number and cvc to make online orders for things like gift cards that can be obtained fairly instantaneous is more dangerous. So getting rid of the card number and cvc from the card and going full app based to view them would be better.

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Sounds unlikely. Monzo have made it pretty clear what their position is on niche, legacy features.

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Drilling a hole :eyes:

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When I saw the recent Apple Card presentation kept thing “Monzo does that”, “Monzo does that”.

Hardly surprising. I’m an Apple fanboy and even I concede they arrive late, copying other ideas, but making sure they work really well before they launch.

The one physical card with no details and no contactless was a clever little move from them, As an electronic bank the physical card is only there for instances when the merchant cannot handle an electronic interface, or your battery is dead.

The same applies to Monzo and if they offered the option of a card without contactless on it, or even a card number, I’d take it. I think Monzo is very secure, and making the physical card useless without a PIN would be a nice step forward.

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Isn’t contactless the way that banking is going. EG increased Google Pay and Apple Pay limits? So would it not be a backwards step? :thinking:

The other solution is to get an RFID wallet (or you can buy cards to go into existing wallets) and this would block all contactless transactions :no_entry_sign: :tada:

You can then just keep your TFL pass in the front of your wallet safe in the knowledge that it won’t clash with anything else :slight_smile:

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I’d really like to make an experimental card for an all-app future.

No embossing, no signature strip, maybe no contactless, laser engraved details, plain front (only your name, Monzo artwork, and Mastercard logo) and so on. :eyes:

Though in all honesty, with the way things are moving, we’ll likely eventually end up making physical cards optional.

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This sounds perfect Rika :heart_eyes:
I look forward to a future without physical cards, but in the meantime your proposed approach would be the dream!

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Bring it on! :muscle:

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What are the ways to increase or decrease (a) contactless (b) atm withdrawal limit? how can it be done in the app? can it be temporary and permanent? can it be applied in the UK and overseas?

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You can change your U.K. ATM limit by contacting Monzo using in app chat.

I don’t know what you mean by contactless limits. Daily card transaction limits can probably be changed in the same way, if necessary.

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Thank you. Contactless limits like in the UK per transaction it’s only £30. Is there a way for this to be increased or decreased? As in having a customer have card control?

I believe this is limited by the card issuer or even the FCA. There’s currently no way for cardholders to increase or decrease the limit, as far as I know.

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I don’t think there should be a split between contactless and non-contactless cards. The technology is rapidly becoming a standard.

An option to turn it on or off in the app, yes, but non-contactless cards sound like a step in the wrong direction, and potentially an unnecessary expense for Monzo.

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I think the future of cards, whilst long, will decrease more and more. There will always be holdouts, same as with cash, but just this morning I was discussing with a colleague that it would be entirely feasible to spend weeks/months without cash or card, thanks to apps.

I trust the FaceID and Apple security way more than I do a card reader (I think each transaction via Apple Pay is obfuscated separately as well from memory) so I’m more than happy to ditch my card completely.

2 Likes