Now leave it in acetone over a few hours – like they did on TV.

On another thread I posted a link to the Hannah Fry documentaries – there was one on smartcards where she dissolved the card away just leaving the chip and "antenna" and she was still able to buy a coffee with it!

In the early days of contactless-payment cards, a very bright light, shone through the card, allowed one to see the embedded conductor traces. The antenna loop, usually running around the card, near to its edge, could then be cut, to disable the contactless payment function. I used to do this, because of scare stories of folk losing their cards, only for some low-life to run up a stonking bill. My bank claimed that it could not turn off the functionality, however I believe that it's now possible. Later on, the cards became opaque to light, so I got a friendly mammographer to image a card. What surprised me was the complex network of conductor traces converging on the area for the signature. Does the act of signing make or break internal contacts, so the chip can detect a signature in some way? But why bother, since we're rarely asked to sign things these days? Anyone know? It all seems rather sneaky to me…

Got a can of acetone will have to try it ! Noel.

You can request non-radio bank cards. We do, to prevent people ripping off our accounts by carrying around radio card readers, and accessing our cards without our knowledge.