M&S customers pay twice on contactless payment cards Shoppers have been charged on their contactless cards without knowing They are charged when simply standing next to the machines M&S recently rolled out contactless payment in 644 stores M&S said it knows of only five cases and they have had a positive response Almost 250,000 transactions a week are now taking place in our stores on contactless By Simon Murphy And Sarah Bridge Marks & Spencer customers are unwittingly having money taken from their accounts through contactless payment cards - despite standing a foot from the till. Shoppers say they are being charged on their contactless cards without knowing, simply by standing close to the machines. The problem was spotted only when a handful of eagle-eyed customers realised what was happening. It raises fears that more shoppers could have been charged without their knowledge. Marks & Spencer customers complained that they have been charged twice for one transaction Paula, from London, told BBC Radio 4"s Money Box programme that when she put her NatWest card into the chip and PIN terminal to pay at an M&S store, it charged her contactless card - which was in her purse in her other hand. A month later she looked at her bank statement and realised she had paid twice. When she returned to the store with the statement, she was given a refund. Rosemary, from Sussex, told Money Box she was charged on her contactless card - despite trying to pay with her Lloyds chip and PIN one. She said: "I put my card into the reader and the assistant was asking whether I wanted cashback. Before I could answer, the transaction came up as complete and the till issued a receipt, though I hadn't put in a PIN at that stage. Marks and Spencer say that they have full confidence in the technology and that they know of only five occurrences I queried it with an assistant and she looked at the receipt and compared it with my card and realised the numbers didn't tally. Rosemary then discovered the Smile card she had in her purse, which was in her other hand, matched the digits on the receipt. The manager had the transaction repeated to prove what was happening. Rosemary received a full refund on both transactions. Last night M&S, which recently rolled out contactless payment in 644 stores, claimed the incidents were isolated and said it had full confidence in the technology. But the UK Cards Association, which represents debit and credit card companies, said more could be done to help customers and retailers and said it would investigate the errors. A spokesman said: "We do think there is a bit more we can do in educating cardholders to tell them not to put their wallet down in this quite narrow field when they pay. There is perhaps more shops can do in terms of cashiers knowing there are two forms of payment. M&S said it had been told of only five of these cases. It said: "We've had an overwhelmingly positive response from customers following the introduction of Contactless, which helps to make payments quicker and more efficient for transactions under £20. Almost 250,000 transactions a week are now taking place in our stores on Contactless.