Card Readers at M6T payment booths.

Richard Buttrey blarted:

I would of thought they just capture the info, and possibly log the time against security cam images from the lane to record car reg number. Card number would be checked against a database of lost/stolen cards supplied daily by the card company. The potential loss of a £2 toll-fee would not make live authorization worthwhile in terms of cost, and the minor amount of fraud could be combatted by the use of sec cam as said above.

George Edwards blarted:

I meant to add that this is typical for most shops under the floor limit for the shop - usually under say £25 or £50 authorisation does not take place live, the card reader just consults a database of hot cards which is downloaded to the shop once a day. The real test would be to use a debit card - in principle every transaction has to be authorized live, so this should take the usual time to process - the toll operators may have an exemption to this in return for a clawback agreement if the transaction subsequently is declined.

It's the same as the pege booth on French motorway. They stick your card in and it pops out within a second. I hear they don't seek authorisation and just bill your card account. For a small amount it's probably not worth it. But there is a potential for fraud using stolen cards.

Alec

"Richard Buttrey" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

There is a card reader at my local shopping centre carpark, probably takes 1 second, the card goes straight in and out. The first time I used it I thought it had failed. I think your latter guess is correct, capture the details for later. There is little chance of fraud, it would bea small one, and if there is fraud you could even argue that the company didnt lose any money, but certainly balancing loss against cost of authorisation plus larger queues, seems like a good decision to make.

Interesting. Does a Switch card, like my bank cheque guarantee card which works in an ATM, count as a direct debit card and would it be accepted by the M6T? If it does I might just try it as an experiment.

Rgds

__ Richard Buttrey Grappenhall, Cheshire, UK __________________________

Richard Buttrey blarted:

If the card has a 16 digit number like a credit card, then it will almost certainly be accepted.

Damn. That means my Tesco Clubcard won't work (it has 18 digits). But wait! My Homebase Spend & Save card has 16. Worth a try.

...as also happens with the "Meteor Parking" at Stansted Airport.

In message , George Edwards writes

I dont think its the number of digits thats relevant, but whether it is switch/maestro. Somewhere on the magnetic strip is a card type identifier which is the reader can identify almost instantaneously.

There is minor scope for mis-use, there is no scope for fraud. The item being purchased is completely impossible to resell/refund and as such will be of no interest to fraudsters whatsoever.

tim

And they probably get discounts for processing all the transactions in bulk overnight.

Gareth