How to disable 'Contactless Payment' on a Nationwide Debit Card - avoid paying twice/ "card clash" on London Underground

This should also work on all other Contactless cards, HSBC, Barclaycard, Santander etc.

March 2015

I misplaced my Nationwide Debit Card (which was old style and did not have Contactless technology).

I was issued a new card which did have contactless technology, showing the usual symbol.

Being aware of the dangers of duplicate payments on London Underground and also people being able to turn their Android into a contactless reader, or a trader going and scanning everyones card at a local station and claiming they all bought goods from him, I wished to have a card without the Contactless technology... a 'non Contactless' card.

I was advised by Nationwide that no 'non Contactless' cards would be issued until the Nationwide roll-out of Contactless cards was complete. [Presumably a few years from now...?]*

I had tried all the other tricks available on the internet at the time, cutting the middle of the card to a depth of 7-8 mm (to cut the antennae), taping the card to the back of my phone (to fry the contactless circuitry) etc. However, none worked, the card still showed as a working card.

I did not want to drill a hole in the card as I wished to keep the 'chip and pin' functions available as I use internet banking and the reader to generate the 2nd level authentication.

Looking closely at the card it appears to be well shielded and the antennae seemed to be very tiny, in fact the only signs of change was there appeared to be 2 small lumps either side (left and right) of the chip and pin. Circled in green.

I therefore took a sharp knife and cut either side of the chip breaking the connection of those lumps with the chip. Here circled in red.

I was obliged to go quite deep and then wiggled the knife around to ensure that the contacts were broken and remained apart in general usage. I have put some clear tape on the flip side of the chip in case the chip wants to leave its moorings and fall out [there is no indication of that, it is a precaution].

I then went to the local store and tried to pay something, only to be told that the card was not working....

Just what I hoped.

* My instinct was to write a strong complaint to the MD himself, but decided it would be far better to provide others with a solution, and if it meant I destroyed and re-ordered 4 or 5 new cards finding out the solution, well that was just the way the cookie crumbled... Nationwide should have just used their old card supplier to provide old style cards to those who wanted them...