Why RFID cards?

Simon J said:
A loyalty scheme is fine. You decide to sign up and get whatever benefits might be on offer. But the electricity suppliers are/weren’t offering an optional loyalty scheme - it's obligatory.
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True, but if you sign up you become a member of the 'club' and as a member the rate of VAT charged is lower, hence the lower price band. (so I believe).
 
I would doubt that the rate of VAT is lower. Rather, it’s just a way to attract and keep customers. Fair enough if your usage warrants it and you choose to do it, but not fair enough if you’re obliged to sign up in order just to be a casual customer.
 
Simon J said:
I would doubt that the rate of VAT is lower. Rather, it’s just a way to attract and keep customers. Fair enough if your usage warrants it and you choose to do it, but not fair enough if you’re obliged to sign up in order just to be a casual customer.
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It is - 5% in line with domestic energy vs 20%.
 
Interesting. Thanks. I hadn’t realised that. Good to know, but are you sure? The. 5% rate applied to domestic charging but does it apply to commercial charging points?

Edit: Hmm ... further reading would suggest that commercial charge points charge 20%, not 5% VAT.
 
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I'm new to BEV's and the few friends I've spoken to about getting an EV (I don't get mine til the end of this month) are just as worried about charger anxiety as much as range anxiety with the myriad of rfid cards they need to have to get a charge:rolleyes:

I'm hoping I don't have to mess around with that rfid card malarkey as I'm having trouble getting sorted out on the contactless side of things.
It's not just rfid cards as I've found out, I'm not really up to date with this new tech :unsure:My debit card was due to be replaced so I asked for a contactless debit card which duly arrived to be authorised by their mobile banking app. Tried to download the banking app but I got the error message ' this device not compatible' ☹️ It turns out my mobile phone is too old & cant run the banking app so now I need to buy a new mobile phone :mad: What a ridiculous waste of a perfectly good phone.
 
chowbenter said:
I'm new to BEV's and the few friends I've spoken to about getting an EV (I don't get mine til the end of this month) are just as worried about charger anxiety as much as range anxiety with the myriad of rfid cards they need to have to get a charge:rolleyes:

I'm hoping I don't have to mess around with that rfid card malarkey as I'm having trouble getting sorted out on the contactless side of things.
It's not just rfid cards as I've found out, I'm not really up to date with this new tech :unsure:My debit card was due to be replaced so I asked for a contactless debit card which duly arrived to be authorised by their mobile banking app. Tried to download the banking app but I got the error message ' this device not compatible' ☹️ It turns out my mobile phone is too old & cant run the banking app so now I need to buy a new mobile phone :mad: What a ridiculous waste of a perfectly good phone.
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I think you can activate/authorise the new card by making a chip and pin purchase with it first. Might depend on the bank of course, or by using a cash machine.
Could well be wrong though.
 
One thing with fast charging stations is that it is very expensive to install and maintain yet only charge pennies per hour. It takes a long time to recoup the money back let alone make money unless there is hugh contribution from the government. Mind you, they will have more users and income if they make it easier. What gives....
 
Gomev said:
I think you can activate/authorise the new card by making a chip and pin purchase with it first. Might depend on the bank of course, or by using a cash machine.
Could well be wrong though.
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It said the card needs authorising before use so until I get a new phone I think I'll wait to use it.
 
chowbenter said:
It said the card needs authorising before use so until I get a new phone I think I'll wait to use it.
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It usually only needs authorising if it's a new account. If it a new card for an existing account you should be able to do a chip and pin purchase then use it contactless.
FYI, with some banks, you also need to do a chip and pin purchase periodically as well to keep using contactless.
 
Kithmo said:
It usually only needs authorising if it's a new account. If it a new card for an existing account you should be able to do a chip and pin purchase then use it contactless.
FYI, with some banks, you also need to do a chip and pin purchase periodically as well to keep using contactless.
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I'm a bit wary of using it just yet until I get this banking app sorted out, After the last time this sort of thing happened to me was in Aldi with a cart full of shopping & my debit card being refused at the till.:mad: It turned out to be the banks fault & not mine.:rolleyes:
 
Simon J said:
Interesting. Thanks. I hadn’t realised that. Good to know, but are you sure? The. 5% rate applied to domestic charging but does it apply to commercial charging points?

Edit: Hmm ... further reading would suggest that commercial charge points charge 20%, not 5% VAT.
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Always shows as 20% vat on my Polar Account.
 
Simon J said:
That’s encouraging, and sensible, but I’m still curious why the cards are needed in the first place. Can no one explain why?
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I think you will find Northern Ireland will be very like Scotland. Here you can get away with having one card, the Charge Scotland Card which covers most chargers here in Scotland and yes most are still free but charges are slowly coming in. Having had the EV now for 6 months I have only charged away from home 3 times at a shell fast charger all 3 times. We find it isn’t nec to charge away from home with the range of the car and our use. We use the car everyday commuting to work and then a long journey of 100mls each way in the weekend. As stated we have have done a top up charge on the weekend journeys a couple of times just in case rather than thru a desperate need to charge, we probably would not have needed it. Apart from that the car runs the whole week without a charge and only needs charging before and after the weekend. So 6 months use and only used public chargers 3 times, not a major issue for us.
 
Indeed, there’s only one supplier here - ESB Ireland - and at the moment charging is free if you can find one that works. But that still doesn’t explain why they need a card at all. We don’t need to have a Tesco Club Card in order to buy their petrol or diesel.
 
Simon J said:
Indeed, there’s only one supplier here - ESB Ireland - and at the moment charging is free if you can find one that works. But that still doesn’t explain why they need a card at all. We don’t need to have a Tesco Club Card in order to buy their petrol or diesel.
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I believe it's because EV charging is such a new service. The data around charging is probably worth more than the fees to charge.

This is why everyone and their mum wants you to use their own special app or RFID card.
 

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