Thanks all.

To heck w/ it. I'll spend my money on beer and sauerkraut!

Foolfor France, you're a man to my liking.
Youcan change your name inoto foolforgermany if you wish !

Ja!

FWIW, if you do have a contactless debit card, there are regular warnings on the London Underground about making sure you touch in and out of the ticket barriers with the same card, and keep them sufficiently far apart, to avoid the system charging both cards a penalty fare.

But AFAIK, simply keeping such cards in separate slots in a wallet is enough when carrying them around. My RFID travel pass is in a slot that folds out of the wallet when I use it on a ticket reader, and AFAIK they've never read the RFID debit card elsewhere in the wallet.

We had this thread discussion three years ago.

I used to work in the industry and there are different types of RFID with different ranges from which the chips can be scanned. Hence the touch type are designed to work very close to the scanner, which generates an electric/magnetic field (physics 101) to drive the chip as well as read the responses from the chip.

Other RFIDs work to greater distances. This is dependent on aerial size (yes they manage to fit one of those into many cards as well), the frequency of the signal etc etc.

My own practise, is to have two sheets of aluminium (aluminum) in my wallet between which my various cards sit. Testing with a variety of field generators at work showed that this was sufficient to ensure the chips did not "wake up". If they don't wake up (get powered on) then a fraudster unit cannot talk to them.

Other more "sophisticated" faraday cages look like great marketing but seem to offer poor protection.

However, none of this really helps when you hand your card to a waiter and he walks off to use it in the back office. Never let the thing out of your sight (and "your hand" would be better).

<i>I do admire the marketing though. </i>

Yes, I wish I had thought of it.

foolforfrance -

Never mind the sleeve, keep in mind many businesses in Germany prefer cash to credit cards, especially in small towns.

My experience in Germany is that an ATM card is more useful than a credit card, other than at hotels, etc.

I am always surprised when I read these comments.
I am quite often in Germany and use credit card everywhere.
usually in cities, ok, but also in small towns.
And I have never used a debitcard in Germany.
Maybe when given the choice, they prefer cash.

By ATM card, I mean cash Whathello.

We were in Germany for three weeks last December, and cash seemed the payment of choice (and sometimes only option), yet we were in many small towns.

Perhaps we frequent different establishments:)