First Direct has told customers who want to pay with contactless cards that they must remove them from their wallets - in an apparent admission that the technology can go wrong.

The introduction of controversial "contactless" payment cards - where customers make payments of up to £20 by briefly touching their card to a reader and do not enter a Pin number - has caused at least one bank to alter its customers' terms and conditions. First Direct, the offshoot of HSBC, has written to its customers saying "we have made changes to clarify that if you have a contactless debit card you must remove it from your wallet or purse before using it to make a contactless payment." This change seems a response to the reported cases of mistaken payments, where money has been taken from peoples' accounts without their knowledge but where they think they brushed against a reader by accident.......Read more HERE

April 2012 blog:
Card details could be 'robbed by radiowave' thanks to new contactless technology

May 2013 Blog:
Contactless 'charging errors' at Marks and Spencer