Energy Prices

[Miguel Sanchez]

1 minute ago, strichener said:

The security on American contactless cards is the same as Europe.  As is the communication protocols.

I'm not sure how you can imagine a check is more secure.  Mental.

all surveys have shown that card payment is the most secure and I don't see why you would think differently between debit and credit cards.

I'd take a guess and say the credit cards are still using a magnetic strip rather than a chip.

[DA Baracus]

Cheques are an absolute nonsense and glad to see that they're almost dead here.

[TxRover]

15 minutes ago, strichener said:

The security on American contactless cards is the same as Europe.  As is the communication protocols.

I'm not sure how you can imagine a check is more secure.  Mental.

all surveys have shown that card payment is the most secure and I don't see why you would think differently between debit and credit cards.

As I said, “chip and PIN” doesn’t exist here, so any transaction is less secure than optimal.

Cheques/checks are not inherently more secure in any way, but have certain protections that debit transactions don’t.

15 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

I'd take a guess and say the credit cards are still using a magnetic strip rather than a chip.

Unfortunately, despite a mandate to install use chip machines, a sizable percentage of businesses still require magnetic strip transactions. There are also plenty of places where chip insertion is considered enough and they decline to allow contactless transactions.

As you know, with a skimmer installed in/on a terminal, it is possible to duplicate the card sufficiently to allow card not present transactions, unless a PIN is required, and no PIN is required in the U.S. for credit transactions. For debit transactions, the use of skimmer overlays is preferred (although, cameras are popular too), as they use a Bluetooth connection to relay the PIN used with the card that the skimmer has stolen the data from.

Failing the use of a skimmer unit, a pair of cameras can capture the card account number, the name, and the “CCV” number…allowing online “card not present” transactions…and this is easier with chip insertion units since the portion of the card with the CCV hangs out. In this case, the failure to require a PIN with the chip is foolhardy, but typical.

[Soapy FFC]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

As I said, “chip and PIN” doesn’t exist here, so any transaction is less secure than optimal.

Cheques/checks are not inherently more secure in any way, but have certain protections that debit transactions don’t.

Unfortunately, despite a mandate to install use chip machines, a sizable percentage of businesses still require magnetic strip transactions. There are also plenty of places where chip insertion is considered enough and they decline to allow contactless transactions.

As you know, with a skimmer installed in/on a terminal, it is possible to duplicate the card sufficiently to allow card not present transactions, unless a PIN is required, and no PIN is required in the U.S. for credit transactions. For debit transactions, the use of skimmer overlays is preferred (although, cameras are popular too), as they use a Bluetooth connection to relay the PIN used with the card that the skimmer has stolen the data from.

Failing the use of a skimmer unit, a pair of cameras can capture the card account number, the name, and the “CCV” number…allowing online “card not present” transactions…and this is easier with chip insertion units since the portion of the card with the CCV hangs out. In this case, the failure to require a PIN with the chip is foolhardy, but typical.

It's a few years since I was in the US, but I was always struck how, especially in restaurants, a simple swipe of the card with no signature check was sufficient. Whenever i paid in a restaurant, my card would be taken away, swiped and 2 copies of the receipt brought back.  You added your tip to one of the receipts, left it on the table and leave. You had no control over what tip was actually charged to your card.

[TxRover]

10 minutes ago, Soapy FFC said:

It's a few years since I was in the US, but I was always struck how, especially in restaurants, a simple swipe of the card with no signature check was sufficient. Whenever i paid in a restaurant, my card would be taken away, swiped and 2 copies of the receipt brought back.  You added your tip to one of the receipts, left it on the table and leave. You had no control over what tip was actually charged to your card.

Correct, and more than a few times the card was swiped on a self contained reader held by the server and downloaded nightly…I had my card cloned illegally three times in 10 years that way, and that’s much less than average.

[hk blues]

7 hours ago, Soapy FFC said:

It's a few years since I was in the US, but I was always struck how, especially in restaurants, a simple swipe of the card with no signature check was sufficient. Whenever i paid in a restaurant, my card would be taken away, swiped and 2 copies of the receipt brought back.  You added your tip to one of the receipts, left it on the table and leave. You had no control over what tip was actually charged to your card.

In all my years of using such a system I never once experienced any issue with this.

[Mark Connolly]

20 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

I reckon the P&B masses should all turn their kettles and washing machines on simultaneously at a pre-organised time every day for a week, just to see if it messes with a confused power board wondering what's so f***ing special about some shite TV programme's advert slot.

5pm on a Saturday after a St Mirren loss.

We're not able to do anything on here at that time anyway

[Dunfermline Don]

Just got an email from my provider advising that my fixed tariff ends in October.

if I go to the variable rate it will be just under £2300 pa. However they are offering me a special fixed rate that will almost be £5K. It sounds very tempting!

[MP_MFC]

10 hours ago, Soapy FFC said:

It's a few years since I was in the US, but I was always struck how, especially in restaurants, a simple swipe of the card with no signature check was sufficient. Whenever i paid in a restaurant, my card would be taken away, swiped and 2 copies of the receipt brought back.  You added your tip to one of the receipts, left it on the table and leave. You had no control over what tip was actually charged to your card.

They still do it. Baffling. General consensus is and my experience has always been they've charged what has been noted down because I guess, if they were constantly dipping folks cards for more money they'd be out on their ear pretty quickly and probably sued. 

One thing I found mental on my recent trip to America was that more places now have contactless but most of them seem to still require you to put a pin in too absolutely defeating the point - even for low value transactions (<$15). 

[Clown Job]

 

[sonsism]

 

 

[Billy Jean King]

 

Two be paid for by the same customers via a future levy no doubt for years to come.

[Todd_is_God]

Apologies if it's in the article and I missed it, but have they confirmed unit prices / standing charges under this cap?

[Detournement]

This is just kicking the can down to the road to Starmer when he gets in while ramping up the deficit and national debt he'll use as an excuse for more austerity. 

Everyone should remember how the debt and deficit was used as an excuse to hammer the most vulnerable in society by Cameron and Osbourne yet here we are a decade later with debt through the rough and it's a non issue because Tory supporters need a government bailout. 

 

[vikingTON]

8 minutes ago, Detournement said:

This is just kicking the can down to the road to Starmer when he gets in while ramping up the deficit and national debt he'll use as an excuse for more austerity. 

Everyone should remember how the debt and deficit was used as an excuse to hammer the most vulnerable in society by Cameron and Osbourne yet here we are a decade later with debt through the rough and it's a non issue because Tory supporters need a government bailout. 

 

That's not quite true - it's also a non-issue to chuck £100 billion or so on the bonfire now because our Eurovision vote earlier in the year wasn't enough of a message. 

[Billy Jean King]

Apologies if it's in the article and I missed it, but have they confirmed unit prices / standing charges under this cap?

BBC article says they "refused to be drawn" on until prices

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, MP_MFC said:

They still do it. Baffling. General consensus is and my experience has always been they've charged what has been noted down because I guess, if they were constantly dipping folks cards for more money they'd be out on their ear pretty quickly and probably sued. 

One thing I found mental on my recent trip to America was that more places now have contactless but most of them seem to still require you to put a pin in too absolutely defeating the point - even for low value transactions (<$15). 

Only applies to a debit transaction, not a credit one.

[Todd_is_God]

Just now, Billy Jean King said:

19 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Apologies if it's in the article and I missed it, but have they confirmed unit prices / standing charges under this cap?

BBC article says they "refused to be drawn" on until prices

That makes no sense. The price cap is, quite literally, the gas and electric unit prices multiplied by 12,000 and 2,900 respectively, added to the standing charge.

It's impossible to state a price cap without knowing those numbers

[superbigal]

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

Apologies if it's in the article and I missed it, but have they confirmed unit prices / standing charges under this cap?

No they have not.

Estimates are quite wide at Gas 9p to 11p (Currently 7p) and Leccy at 34p to 37p (currently 28p) per KwUnit

 

As previously they will have to decide how much of the "advertised" rise is on Gas and how much on Electricity.

Edited September 8, 2022 by superbigal

[HEY_SIDNEY]

3 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Apologies if it's in the article and I missed it, but have they confirmed unit prices / standing charges under this cap?

No mate 

still under discussion as a lot of the finer details as well. 
Stuff like if you went on a fixed what happens regarding exit fee (I know ML has posted but it’s still up for discussion) 

energy UK are currently in a meeting regarding it all and we(employees of energy companies) will be updated tomorrow morning.