Google Pay and NFC

Tried Google Pay for the first time today - for the weekly shop. There isn't a £ limit on contactless transactions as there is if you use a normal debit/credit card - which is a plus for me.

Liked that there is a separate record of each transaction - payee and amount - recorded on the 'phone.

Thing is - NFC does not turn on automatically when I open the app - does anyone know - is it safe/normal to leave NFC on all the time?

 

Always on it is

 

Is this anything similar to paying with a barcode on your phone?
I saw someone doing that the other day.

 

It's a contactless payment - instead of waving you debit/credit card over the till - you wave your 'phone.

I've done a bit of googling on security - your account details are not shared with the shop - so it's not possible for a rogue employee to nick your card details - they cannot 'swipe' it and read the card details, because there is no card. Apparently, each transation has it's own security set up - so even if some mastermind criminal nicks your transaction details and decodes the card - they can only repeat the transaction with the same store for the same amount and you are told when there is a transaction - so if it does happen you can block the card straight away.

Tea leaves can't be bothered with breaking down all the security - It's just too much hassle. It's more secure than a card.

 

Until you lose a signal, you lose your phone, or you drop it and it dont work anymore.
Sounds fool proof, until something goes wrong.