ANZ ATMs now accessible using Google Pay - Something I do not want

I just received an email from ANZ Bank telling me ‘You will be able to access Australian ANZ ATMs using the Google Pay app with an eligible ANZ Visa debit or credit card’
So now if my phone is stolen it can be used to access my bank account directly. Now this is something I don’t need or want. In fact I may now remove Google Pay from my phone.
I would like to see the banks offer options as to how your cards can be used. I would love to disable ‘pay wave’ on my credit card.

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I agree. The banks seem to take a very ‘Big Brother’ approach to such matters offering us “benefits” we may not want or need. I question who is the real beneficiary of many of these changes?

Paywave reduces security on the credit card and the chips can be skimmed without the cards being taken out. And Paywave treats all cards like credit cards.

If you are worried about your phone being stolen, secure your mobile phone with a lock code, so even if it is stolen, the code should keep almost everyone but you out.

As for Google Pay, it would seem that you need to set it up to work on your mobile. The setup process may include a verification code via SMS. If you are worried about the security, don’t set it up.

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Not for the faint of heart, and a 1-way adventure. (Credit cards should be the same but experimenting on an old one could not be a bad idea before working on your current one.)

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Certainly not. I’m also thinking:

  • the card doesn’t belong to the cardholder, but rather the issuer
  • if I were a merchant and saw a customer inserting a card with holes like that one into my card terminal, I’d be very suspicious
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A bit of filing, some filler, some carefully applied tape, and viola, stealth card :wink:

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Why not just use the craft knife to slice through? I would use a ruler to start the scoring, and then just go over it repeatedly until you cut through the wire antenna. It would be a very fine line which would address @ScottOKeefe’s concerns about the card looking sus.

What about a chisel banged down a few times in the right place would cut the wire. Also not as obvious as the soldering iron.

My final suggestion is using an old fashioned single hole punch to achieve the same result. The problem is that it would be very obvious that moths had been in the wallet though.

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I use Google Pay on my phone and it is handy at times, if my phone is stolen yes it could be used but only to buy stuff from a shop not to go get cash from an ATM. I have a lock on my phone but it’s not hard to keep the phone unlocked e.g. if it’s snatched from your hand whilst using it. My issue is that this is just putting a bigger target on mobile phones. Great new feature for some but theses features should all come with opt out or better opt in choices.

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Are all these so called improvements only for customer convenience?

Could you include market advantage to the ANZ in this instance as a bank goal?

Not so much a question as an observation. Since we all stopped signing for a card transaction on a paper and carbon card imprinted copy, the banks appear to be trying to find more ways to transfer all of the responsibility for card fraud and loss to the customer, little at a time.

While contactless payment would seem contrary to that thought, using contactless is a customer choice of a bank provided option. (Not one I asked for.) Two factor authentication is a step too far for many of us, although once you also use your phone for transactions, lossing it if it is unlocked might open up a whole new world of pain?

Knowing that mobile devices do connect to the internet and mobiles are vulnerable in some degree to hacking or bad apps is there a near future risk some one will find a rock solid backdroor into some of the phones. A short step to gain knowledge sufficient to use a copy of the phone to access your accounts, or just key log your pins etc?

It’s easy to accept that Apple for many marketing reasons is also keen to keep the inner workings of it’s hardware and software tightly closed. Android’s owner might aspire to similar heights. The collection and sharing of information which is also core to Alphabet’s business model may run counter to this outcome?

One of the observations of @scotty350 may need some further consideration.?

p.s. We keep our cards when we travel in special metal screened holders. But do they work to block random scanning?

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The scanner relies on using the antenna built into the card to activate the chip. The metal casing acts as a block to that activation ie it stops the antenna in the card getting the signal (sort of a Faraday cage).

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On the lighter side then:

Many thanks. If there is a nuclear device detonation nearby the EMP will most likely wipe out the ATM, but my card will be safe. I’m reassured. :joy:

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I have a CBA credit card and I can disable various functions, including paywave, via NetBank. I assume the ANZ has something similar - ie somewhere you can access your account online and enable/disable various functions on various cards?

(I only found out about this after having my credit card skimmed and used for fraudulent transactions - I have disabled ATM cash advances, in-store international payments and online international payments. If I need any of these functions (eg overseas on a holiday) I just enable them for the relevant period.)

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I no longer directly use my CC (well, DC really) now that I have Apple Pay. These systems are inherently safer than using your card directly, because they do NOT pass the actual card account number to anybody. Paywave is a different matter. If you have secured your phone with a faceID (I believe some android phones have that) or a fingerprint, or a strong password, you should not have an issue with security. I have a CC with CBA and never use it, because they dont use apple pay (google pay/android pay maybe).

The only issue I would have with google pay is having Mr Google knowing all the stuff I might buy with my card.

Oh yeah… get an RFID wallet for stopping random scans of your cards.

[edit] I should say that I now use my Apple Pay on my Apple Watch which is even handier because I dont have to futz about with the wallet or my phone. I think theres an app for android watches too?

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I was at our local fish and hamburger shop ar lunch time today waiting for a young woman in front of me to decide what she wanted.

When she ordered, she simply waived her smart phone over the PayWave style EFTPOS terminal.

First time I have seen it done.

Don’t know what happens if your phone is lost or stolen.

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Make sure you have a find my phone app on it, secure it with a strong password, use fingerprint if available. But most of all… dont lose it. I dont even know how people do that.

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My wife has just received a new debit card through and was told when she tried to activate it that it was already active. So presumably if it was stolen in the post someone could just start ‘pay waving’ it.

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