Girogo
Girogo ( spelling : girogo ) is a function on the Girocard introduced by the Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft in 2012 and enables contactless payment within Germany at retail payment terminals, vending machines and NFC-enabled smartphones.
technology
The bank debit cards issued by banks and savings banks (Giro cards, debit cards earlier) are a RFID -Funkchip with the international transmission standard Near Field Communication ( Near Field Communication extended acronym NFC). NFC is now mostly integrated in current smartphones . That is why Girogo is also seen as a “ bridging technology ” for paying by mobile phone.
In addition to the account-based Girogo cards issued by banks and savings banks, which are now around 45 million in Germany, there are also non-account-related Girogo cards that are available separately (for a fee) or, for example, from B. be issued in soccer stadiums ("fan card").
Charge
Girogo is a " prepaid payment method ": You can only pay with it if you have topped up credit beforehand. The maximum credit on a girogo card is 200 euros. The card can be topped up in different ways:
The girogo card is loaded manually:
- At around 58,000 ATMs at the participating institutes.
- At special loading terminals, e.g. B. in football stadiums or canteens.
- Via the Internet with the help of a chip card reader that has the Secoder standard.
- Via a smartphone with integrated NFC technology and the corresponding app, e.g. B. "Sparkasse", it is possible to top up.
The girogo card is automatically loaded:
- At payment terminals (ec terminals) in retail using the “subscription shop” function. In the course of a payment process, the card is automatically reloaded by an amount agreed in advance with the bank / savings bank (between EUR 20.00 and EUR 50.00) if the required payment amount exceeds the current balance on the card.
- At payment terminals (ec terminals) in retail using the "Load with PIN entry" function. In the course of a payment process, the card is automatically recharged by an amount determined by the issuer and cannot be changed (currently 35 euros) after entering the PIN, provided that the required payment amount exceeds the current balance on the card.
- In the future, the “subscription loading” function should also be possible at machines.
The predecessor Geldkarte suffered from the practical problem that many potential users had never topped up their cash cards or had forgotten to top them up sufficiently, so that in practice spontaneous payment had to be resolved differently. That is why Girogo paid particular attention to expanding the top-up options compared to the old cash card.
Pay
To pay, the girogo card is held at a distance of a few centimeters on the payment terminal (usually on the display of the ec terminal), on the payment area of the machine or on an NFC-enabled smartphone. The card no longer needs to be inserted. No PIN entry and no signature on a receipt is required for payment. An optical or acoustic signal on the terminal, machine or smartphone confirms the successful girogo payment. The actual payment process takes i. d. Usually less than a second.
Payment terminals and machines at which girogo payments are accepted are marked with the official girogo logo; often the logo is also attached to the entrance door. In Germany around 13,000 retailers, petrol stations, restaurants and service providers currently accept payments with girogo.
criticism
Data protectionists complain that the radio chips send a globally unique ID number, the last 15 payment transactions with date, time, amount, IDs of the charging terminals or retailers and the last three prepaid charging processes from the carrier in an uncontrollable and unencrypted manner. The cards can be read electronically with NFC-enabled smartphones at a maximum distance of 4 cm, and with more complex devices at a distance of half a meter or more, even through a jacket or backpack. This makes it easy to create movement profiles for the card carriers.
The savings banks present this as unproblematic, since the data could not be assigned to any person. The data protectionists counter that it is very possible to assign the data to specific customers. For this it is sufficient if the ID number of the NFC card can be assigned to the person once. This can happen, for example, if, in addition to the NFC bank card, another contactless card with a user name is carried in the pocket. The user names can also be read optically from the cards.
Critics further complain that existing security precautions against unauthorized reading, such as the German electronic passport , are not used at girogo; They also generally miss an explanation of the security risks by the card issuer.
The credit institutions do not offer any freedom of choice. Each card will be replaced by a card with Girogo at the latest when it expires. Girogo is also active without credit and cannot be deactivated. It is not advisable to put the card in a microwave oven to destroy the chip, as the chip is then no longer suitable for use with terminals with contact (e.g. for the girocard function or the traditional cash card function where the card must be plugged into a reader) would work. In addition, the magnetic stripe could also be destroyed. Special RFID protective covers provide protection against unnoticed reading. For a payment process, however, the card must be removed from the case. The savings banks do not supply an RFID protective cover. In general, not every protective cover is reliably effective, which is partly due to the fact that the cards can work in different frequency ranges.
Web links
- Website of the brand girogo
- Information page of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe
- App of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe for reading out the girogo card
- App of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe for accepting girogo payments via smartphone
- Detailed wiki about girogo at the AK stock
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release: Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft introduces new trademark girogo for contactless payment ( memento of the original from 23 September 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ZKA , accessed on January 12, 2012.
- ↑ App of the Sparkassen-Finangzuppe for accepting girogo payments via smartphone
- ↑ http://www.geldkarte-shop.de/product_info.php/product/Kontounabhaengige_GeldKarte_Colorful
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Girogo homepage, FAQ: 5. Which charging options are available? Retrieved March 19, 2016.
- ↑ girogo shop finder app, shows the current number of all retailers participating in girogo
- ↑ heise.de: Credit card theft by smartphone , accessed on March 12, 2015
- ↑ a b c Matthias Klein: criticism of radio chip, giro card with built-in risk. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung . June 2012, accessed October 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Computer picture: Fuss about NFC technology, data theft when paying? Retrieved January 3, 2013
- ↑ Information flyer AK stock, local group Hanover (PDF; 371 kB), accessed on January 3, 2013
- ↑ a b Spiegel-Online: “Invisible change betrays its owner” , accessed on January 3, 2013
- ↑ Spiegel-Online: Data protectionists fear misuse of the new wireless money card , June 12, 2012
- ↑ Press release of the DSGV with a reply ( memento of the original from December 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , June 15, 2012
- ^ A b Arne Arnold, Moritz Jäger: Payment via NFC - convenient but secure? In: pcwelt.de. July 12, 2012, accessed October 13, 2015 .
- ↑ girokonto.org, illustration Girokonto Sparkasse Card , accessed on March 13, 2015
- ↑ digitalcourage.de Girogo: Sparkassen bug their bank cards , accessed on March 12, 2015
- ↑ verbrauchzentrale-niedersachsen.de Cashless payment methods in retail , accessed on March 12, 2015
- ↑ spiegel.de: High-tech ID cards: Unprotected despite overcoat , accessed on March 13, 2015
- ↑ security-insider.de: RFID shielding against identity theft , accessed on March 13, 2015
