This is one of the mysteries of contactless payment: it is not always possible to pay without entering your confidential code, even for small amounts. Is it from your bank or your credit card?
“Refused payment”. Two words that haunt minds when going to checkout. But no more embarrassment, it has almost become commonplace. At issue: contactless payment. 90% of French people use it but often have to deal with its hazards… which aren’t really any. When the machine asks to insert your card after a contactless refusal, it is not due to chance!
All French people know: to pay without having to enter your secret code, the amount must not exceed €50. On the other hand, very few know the other rules that exist.
It is not possible to chain as many contactless payments as desired, due to security concerns. But the banks don’t explain it and the regulations are difficult to find. The general framework is easy: if you are refused a contactless payment of less than €50, it is because you have either exceeded a cumulative purchases limit, or carried out too many transactions without inserting your card.
However, not all banks apply the same rules. Here is when you are required to insert your bank card into the TPE to pay, even below €50:
- Postal bank : exceeding the ceiling of €80 of cumulative purchases, per day
- BNP : 5 consecutive contactless payments per day, regardless of the total amount
- CIC : exceeding the ceiling of €100 of cumulative purchases, per day
- Agricultural credit : 5 consecutive contactless payments per day, regardless of the total amount
- Mutual credit : exceeding the ceiling of €100 of cumulative purchases, per day
The other banks remained opaque on the subject. There Popular Bank and the Savings Bank responded to The Internet user that these are “our little trade secrets.” “I will not give you the algorithms” which decide when to enter your secret code, replied Yves Tyrode, general director of Digital & Payments at BPCE. For its part, the Societe Generale did not respond to our request for information.
More generally, banks are required to apply the regulations decided by the European Union: as soon as the cumulative amount of the last contactless purchases exceeds €150 or more than 5 contactless payments have been made, the confidential code must be request. Beyond these principles, all affirm that random checks can also be carried out. The CB code can therefore be requested at any time.