Is it the end of cash?

[mrcharly-YHT]

I cannot recall the precise details just now but there was a case perhaps last year? Where people were having their phones stolen from gym lockers.  Somehow those phones were being used to make financial transactions.

This was discussed before.

Change your phone settings so that SMS contents are not shown when the screen is locked.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's always seemed a bit of a silly idea to have notifications displayed without unlocking the phone. What advantage does it bring?

[lissotriton]

Or switch the phone off, before putting it in your locker.
Though they could just steal your SIM, and put it in another phone. So make sure you have set a SIM PIN.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Or switch the phone off, before putting it in your locker.
Though they could just steal your SIM, and put it in another phone. So make sure you have set a SIM PIN.

Finally, a justification for e-sims!

[lissotriton]

Best to disable any SMS verification anyway. It can be unreliable and unsecure.
Use an authenticator app if you can.

[ian]

I cannot recall the precise details just now but there was a case perhaps last year? Where people were having their phones stolen from gym lockers.  Somehow those phones were being used to make financial transactions.

This was discussed before.

Change your phone settings so that SMS contents are not shown when the screen is locked.

Default on an iPhone, it just tells you have got a message. Been that way for as long as I remember, which may be as far back as last week.

[cygnet]

Doesn't need to be cash-less for them to surveil you. E.g. tescos are following the lead of US markets with direct price discounts for "tracking" card holders. Expect the others to follow suit soon.

Your club card has been about surveillance of your buying habits since the last millennium.

J

I don't have one. The price discounts for card holders advertised directly on the shelves are new here.

And given the reported sale of data by sainos and tescos, I'm still OK with that.
(I am fortunate in that I am not reliant on the discounted "cardholder/datamine" prices)

[Canardly]

Round table came door knocking t'other day with that bloke Santa, expecting cash!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Cash getting a boost in China, or maybe end of life support.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/29/china-slows-cashless-society-transition-cash-digital-currency-mobile-payment-system

[Morat]

China have been very reluctant to move to the payment gateways used by the rest of the world. Apparently you CAN use Visa etc now, but mostly via WeChatPay and the like. It seems strangely un-pragmatic.

[tom_e]

The "rest of the world" have been using restrictions on the western payment systems as a pragmatic way of applying sanctions to countries.  It is entirely unsurprising that China want to keep their systems independent, and under their control (and monitoring).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Also, see QG's comments on using Visa (or is it Master Card?) in the Netherlands.

[Morat]

The "rest of the world" have been using restrictions on the western payment systems as a pragmatic way of applying sanctions to countries.  It is entirely unsurprising that China want to keep their systems independent, and under their control (and monitoring).

China also uses this mechanism to enforce their foreign exchange controls.

[hellymedic]

Though I am mostly a cash-using Luddite, there have been occasions when I’ve wanted to use my credit card.
As a wheelchair user, my taxis usually end their journeys in subterranean car park dungeons, where there is no mobile phone signal for payment terminals.
This makes card use (I don’t run a smartphone or Apple watch) a ‘challenge’.

There is no issue with cash...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Presumably if you did have a smartphone, there still wouldn't be a signal.

[Jurek]

I use a mini-cab when I visit my mum every week. It is the only reason that I carry cash.

[grams]

Smartphone/watch payment (e.g. Apple Pay) is functionally a fancy card. It doesn't need a signal to make a payment, though the driver's terminal probably does*.

If you were booking through a taxi/minicab app then payment would be handled (waves hands mysteriously) in the cloud using your registered card so no need for a signal at the moment your journey ends.

(* of course some taxi drivers may be talking shite about the terminal not working. London taxi drivers had to be arm-twisted by TfL into stopping that bollox)

[road-runner]

Smartphone/watch payment (e.g. Apple Pay) is functionally a fancy card. It doesn't need a signal to make a payment, ...

My experience differs with yours. Let me explain two different situations.

1. When I take my O2 Android mobile to church I turn it off before the service and on again after the service has finished. I once went to the supermarket after church and turned my mobile on in the supermarket. When I got to the checkout it would not accept Google Pay. I had to go home (it could have been church or somewhere else where I have wi-fi access) in order for Google Pay to do some sort of validation, after which I rushed back to the supermaket to pay for my goods.

2. I went to Ukraine, only 5km over the border, only 5km outside the EU zone my mobile has cover in, but when I came to pay I got an error message saying that I did not have a roaming package to cover data use. As it was, despite the error message, the payment was successful (the cashier confirmed that she had received the payment) and I later saw that it had used 56kB.

So my experience is that on turning on your mobile there is some validation that occurs through wi-fi and payments seem to require a little amout of mobile data.