[Quote:]

The Halifax bank is enrolling unsuspecting customers in trials of a new generation of RFID-enabled bank cards, and trying to keep them in the program even if they have mis-givings about the wave and pay technology.

PayWave allows punters to debit their account without having to enter a PIN or sign for goods valued at less than £10.

The RFID-based technology, backed by Visa, is being rolled out by UK banks Barclays and Halifax, as well as others on the continent. Mastercard is backing a similar technology called PayPass.

Halifax is introducing the technology in London to a number of punters, including Reg reader Pete.

Pete, a current account holder at Halifax, was among those issued with a new card. He didn’t want to use the unsolicited technology and his attempts to receive an alternative card, though ultimately successful, proved frustrating.

“I have to input my PIN the very first time I use this ‘Paywave’ card, but after that it is automatically authorised to work for all transactions under £10,” Pete explained. “I put the new card straight in the bin – in fact, I shredded it and put it in several different bins. I don’t want this highly insecure-sounding facility, and I never use a debit card for retail transactions anyway.”

The best quote from the article is by far:

“Major customer education issues still need to be overcome before everyone is happy to use this as a cash-replacement technology, which is what the banks and retailers want,” he said.

He may want to investigate the “customer education issues” that doomed the ChipKnip here in 0031.