Friday 13 June 2014

Cardless cash

I know that sometimes I'm a late adopter of technology, but at least I'd heard of "PayWave" before it arrived in my mailbox.  But I hadn't heard of "cardless cash" until I read about it.  This enables you to withdraw cash from an ATM without a card, by using your smartphone.  CAB offer the facility allowing up to $200 per day, and Westpac will offer something similar later in the year.

As I understand it, with the CBA, when you want to withdraw money, you use the app to say how much you want.  You then receive two PINs, one via the app on the smartphone and the other by SMS. Both of these are transmitted to your phone.  When you get to an ATM, you enter these numbers.    

I watched the clip on the CBA site and it seems that you don't need to enter your bank PIN either on your phone or at the ATM.   Security is provided by your phone password (which the bank is not concerned with).   True, most phone users set their phone so that this needs to be keyed in after a minute or so of inactivity, but even so, it left me wondering, particularly about the fact that the bank having no responsibility in the process for checking that the phone is not being improperly used (such as requiring a PIN known by the bank to be keyed in).

So, I had a look at the "fine print", as a footnote to the expression about the user not being liable for unauthorised transactions.   
This states, "^This means we’ll cover any loss should someone make an unauthorised withdrawal on your account using Cardless Cash - provided you protect your phone and phone password and immediately notify us of their loss, theft or misuse, and of any suspicious activity on your account."

Hmmm, if you lose your phone, can you be said to have failed to "protect" it?  If someone loses their phone, will informing the bank be the first thing on their minds?   How quickly do you have to notify the bank in order to be able to say that you've "immediately" notified them?   I haven't used this facility (and am unlikely to do so) so perhaps I've missed something, but otherwise it seems to me that there are a few "loose ends" here!

1 comment:

  1. The whole idea of doing anything related to banking on a mobile phone scares me.

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