wirral_cyclist wrote:djnotts wrote:rmurphy195 wrote:<SNIP>
Having checked, my debit card is apparently contactless - never used this facility, but does seem a helpful idea. Anyone know if I have to do anything to activate the function?
A brand new contactless card needs one pin transaction before using contactless, note that roughly every 5th transaction will need a pin as an added security measure.
I don't think I've ever had to use a PIN with contactless. Do you mean 5 transactions in one day, as I can't be sure I've done that? Or will a standard chip & PIN reset it? Certainly I've done many 10s (maybe 100s) of contactless payments without having to use a PIN.
A few years ago I used to pay cash on transactions less than around £10, nowadays I'll not usually use cash unless it is for less than £1 or I'm somewhere (rarely) that doesn't take cards.
Revolut cards are good for abroad too (if we ever get to travel again). I used ours almost exclusively when we visited our new granddaughter in Canada last year. You can have separate accounts (on the same card) in different currencies. I changed money to CAD in advance when the exchange rate was good (you can set auto exchanges, or just notifications, when the rate reaches a certain level) so I knew how many dollars I had. It will also do exchange on the fly at, apparently, good rates if you haven't exchanged in advance. One slight gotcha is you can't mix & match currencies - if you have 100CAD on the card & pay, say, 120CAD it will take all 120CAD out of your main currency (£ usually unless you've set it differently) & leave your 100CAD still sitting there.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.