Lost card abroad. The bank returned the money and later withdrew the refund. Because the thief paid contactless

he described – as a warning – the story of one of his readers. Mr. Marcin (name changed) was in the USA in September last year, during his stay he lost (or was stolen) his payment card issued by mBank. He did not notice this fact right away, because it was his reserve card, and he paid with a different one every day. It was only after logging into the bank’s application that he found almost 30 transactions in the history that he had not performed. What’s more, most of them were for amounts exceeding PLN 100.

The bank returned the money, but changed its mind

Mr. Marcin did not authorize any of these transactions – neither by entering the PIN nor in any other way. He wasn’t even in the places where those transactions were made. What’s more, he was surprised that the payments were accepted by the bank, despite the fact that they amounted to over PLN 100. In Poland, above this amount, a request to enter the PIN is displayed on the terminal (from time to time, banks ask for a PIN also below PLN 100). So the customer filed a complaint and mBank gave him the money back in just 24 hours. However, he noted that the matter still needs to be verified.

The problem appeared after a month, when the bank – after verification – withdrew the refund. In response to the complaint, the man learned that the thief had used his card contactless, so the transactions did not have to be authorized with a PIN. What’s more, the amounts of card purchases could exceed PLN 100 (and in this case the equivalent amount in dollars), because regulations imposing such a limit do not apply in the USA. As the Mastercard company explains to Bankier.pl, overseas limits for which strong authentication is not necessary range from zero to $100 (depending on the retail and service point). This upper limit is (at the current exchange rate, which is definitely lower than in September 2022) approx. PLN 415.

mBank also referred to the case, which explains that in the USA (and thus outside the European Economic Area) Art. 11 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which limits the upper limit of contactless transactions to EUR 50 (each country may, however, set its own lower limit and in Poland it is the mentioned PLN 100). Within the EEA, the bank must additionally request the use of strong authentication after performing contactless transactions for the amount of EUR 150 from the previous PIN entry. mBank explains that it had no right to reject the transaction in this case. It also reminds that in the event of theft, banks are liable for transactions above EUR 50 before the card is blocked.

Paying with a contactless card abroad? This is worth paying attention to

When paying with a card abroad, it is worth setting daily or weekly payment limits above which the bank will block transactions. If the card is lost or stolen, we will lose, for example, a few hundred zlotys at most. The amount of these limits can usually be flexibly changed in the mobile banking application. Some banks from the smartphone level also allow, for example, to block contactless transactions or magnetic stripe. When going abroad, it is also worth taking two or three payment cards that we will keep in different places so that – in the event of loss of the wallet – we do not lose funds. In the case of cards that we do not intend to use on a daily basis, foreign transactions can also be blocked. An additional security feature is the activation of notifications from the application about card transactions for the time of departure.