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When the Mobile fails.... dependence is quite shocking...

I don’t think I have seen a single sales terminal that can do contactless payments but can’t do chip payments

Then you have to touch the keypad to enter the PIN – an infection route.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Then you have to touch the keypad to enter the PIN – an infection route.

That is doubtful. In any case, you could use a pen or any other tool to enter the PIN. Or wash your hands frequently. I don’t know of any bacteria or virus that can infect through unbroken skin.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Mooney_Driver wrote:

I am still locked out of my bank account as the secondary phone won’t receive SMS’s as well as have no access to my wish, Amazon, my credit card accounts and some other applications as all of them have two step authorisation.

I don’t think you actually need SMS for two step authorization. Some do, some don’t I guess, but it could be tied to the SIM card (and phone combination) and still work over wifi only if needed (I have done this the last weeks working at a place with no mobile coverage, only wifi). I avoid two step authorisation whenever I can. IMO, a password is some of the stupidest “inventions” ever made, two step authorization is stupider still Passwords are after all manageable if you have a google account, but two step is dead in the sea if something happens to your phone.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

In any case, you could use a pen or any other tool to enter the PIN. Or wash your hands frequently. I don’t know of any bacteria or virus that can infect through unbroken skin.

All correct, but

  • whose pen? if theirs, you are picking up lots of bugs there
  • washing hands is not feasible most of the time, especially after a shop or a petrol station, and then you transfer the bugs to everything in the car, and disinfecting a car takes a lot longer
  • it won’t go through skin but you will touch your nose or eyes eventually

Contactless is best

I don’t think you actually need SMS for two step authorization

It’s ok if you have another device to which the SIM card can be moved. SMS based 2FA cannot be circumvented (short of having access to the cellular network, or spoofing it) without that SIM. Well, there are ways, if the GSM company has bad procedures: here.

However one can have 2FA based on the common “keypad” method where the device generates sequential numbers; that generator, available as a phone app, can be installed on multiple devices so you can have 2FA with a backup. I am just not sure how many institutions support that; those I know force you to take their keypad, which is another single point of failure when travelling.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Contactless is best

Yes, but the question was if a credit card which is not contactless is “fairly useless these days”. I say no, but it might be that in other countries (like the UK) it is common with terminals which only accept contactless payment.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

I don’t think we have here many terminals which are contactless-only. There are some but all “proper places” have a thingy which does both. My “contactless being essential” comment is based on my attitude to catching CV19 I think entering a PIN on a keypad touched by 1000 people in the last day or so is shortening the odds considerably.

What I have seen outside the UK which we don’t seem to have here is contactless with PIN entry. OK; it doesn’t help with the hygiene issue but it means you could potentially use a phone (instead of a card) with a PIN, thus removing the transaction limits. Currently I see a £45 (was £30) limit on contactless with a card, and £150 (determined empirically) on contactless with a phone. And no way to use the phone with a PIN.

So going back to MD’s post, filling up a car with a low limit could be a PITA. I keep a pocketful of disposable gloves

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

This made me think. Losing my phone (my 3rd iPhone, an iPhone 8 now about 3 years old) would be a serious nuisance, but it wouldn’t have the life-jarring effect that the OP reports. Various things want 2FA but they all offer an alternative, either an email or for my UK bank, a secret decoder thingy. I don’t use Apple Pay but even if I did, I still have several physical cards. I have actually never met a contactless terminal, not even sure they exist in the US – and back in the far-distant days when travel was possible, I never used one anywhere else either.

I don’t back up my contacts etc all that often, but they don’t change often either. There would be a handful that I’d have to recreate from somewhere.

Off topic, but the evidence for contact-based transmission of Covid is on the non-existent end of low. I do keep some sanitizer in the car and use it, but I abandoned gloves long ago.

LFMD, France

Android is an open system. That can have its merits, but reliability and safety (i.e. in payments or in this case flight applications) is not one of them. I never had any issues with any of my gazillion apple devices. Never. Ever. Any.

Apple Pay is a great product. Hey, I must know, we have built a mobile payment system ourselves :)

Last Edited by EuroFlyer at 17 Sep 21:05
Safe landings !
EDLN, Germany

FWIW, I still use an 8-year old iPhone with a UK SIM card when traveling in Europe. It’s a bit slow now, but works just fine.

the evidence for contact-based transmission of Covid is on the non-existent end of low

I don’t believe that for an instant. Plenty of research showing the endurance on various surfaces.

Apple Pay is a great product

It seems to work exactly the same as google pay, samsung pay, etc. It works, except when it is declined, so one needs to carry a CC separately.

we have built a mobile payment system ourselves

Do you work for Apple?

I still use an 8-year old iPhone with a UK SIM card when traveling in Europe. It’s a bit slow now, but works just fine.

For voice and SMS, a 20 year old phone would work perfectly too. The challenge is SIM card expiry. That’s a whole other topic There are, allegedly, reportedly, PAYG SIMs which don’t expire because the said company has forgotten to configure the usual 90 day expiry. In fact Virgin’s “direct debit auto topup” ones still function, despite not being issued for years, though they have recently crippled them by making them voice+sms only (no data). I used to have a few; they were great for backup phones, and for “granny phones”, despite Virgin’s outrageous per-minute call rates. There are alarm systems which use these and which send out an SMS or call some number every 89 days, so a €50 / 50 quid prepaid SIM works for many years; I used to sell a data logger / alarm product which did that. But then some companies moved to block this, by cancelling a SIM which has not had a topup for 90 days, and the minimum topup is say £5 Now, in the UK at least, you can get £3/month contract SIMs but the ones I know can’t do voice; they are data only.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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