Credit cards and suppliers and registration and user identities and general info

[french frank]

My view is that we have to accept that there is a great deal of credit card fraud about and that if you have a credit card you are likely to be a victim of fraud sooner or later. It will be a nuisance, but the value of the card is that if there has been a fraud you can get your money back. Weigh that nuisance against the convenience of the card (and corresponding nuisance of not having one).

I have one credit card not associated with my bank account which is used for online transactions, including being registered where regular transactions are made (I use Paypal where available). I get a notification whenever a payment is taken from that card, so I can see at once (or when I wake up in the morning!) whether there has been an unauthorised transaction. I only use my bank credit card for face-to-face transactions with shops/businesses I know ; and I use my debit card more often - unless it's something for which I want the credit facilty (it seldom is) and at ATMs - (why would you use a credit card at an ATM?).

What do others feel - or even know - about this kind of thing?

I know nothing - I feel pretty relaxed about it, all things considered and weighing the pros, cons and risks.

[Anastasius]

try rereading my post - you presumably have never had to handle a situation where a friend could be severely harmed - it was the difficulty of gaining any service including the use of the paid for device

Ditto. I think that you'e conflating several different issues here.

[Anastasius]

OK - so you've never had a credit card compromised, or money stolen from your bank account. I have - several times - and that was before the Internet really kicked off.
Oh - just in case you think this is trivial - imagine going to a country, then finding you couldn't get any cash out of an ATM, and you couldn't buy anything on a credit card, and then wondered how you were ever going to get back to the country you started from. You are also on your own, and have only very limited number of personal contacts you know who could help you nearby. Actually you do manage to do that- get a flight back home - because you (thankfully) have other cards, and some cash, but when you get back you discover that several £000s (thousands) have been taken out of your bank account.

This did happen to me, though in fact at the time I was travelling between the UK and Sweden, and the details of my CC were taken in England. Eventually I did retrieve all the money, but it was very inconvenient, and I might have been totally stranded - up s*** creek without a paddle.

So you say - "don't worry" - and yes, to an extent I agree - and that was precisely the point I was trying to make about JL and the washing machine. Much of what we do is based on trust, and a belief that some companies are going to play fair, and that some products are going to be good. We don't normally ask to see every inspection certificate for the washing machines coming out of a factory, nor details of what statistical sampling methods have been used by the manufacturer. The assumption is that if we buy from a reputable supplier and we buy a what is generally agreed to be a good model (perhaps reviewed in Which) that things will work OK. So why on earth do we need the GDPR to require web sites to provide so many details which a typical end user is never going to want or know about, yet AFAIK it doesn't seem to address matters of real concern to consumers, such as "are my credit card details really safe with this organisation", and "will the company keep my credit card details for more than 1 month", and where will the company keep the details of my credit cards or other personal data? You think these are not important?

Then why don't you follow Jeremy Clarkson's example and stick details of all your cards and bank accounts up on a public web site and see what happens?

OK - we're not actually discussing doing that, but in the case of some organisations their security might be such that you might just as well do that.

Your reply is a complete non-sequitor to what we are talking about. How does your card being hacked relate to knowledge of JL's supply chain ? I have not been on any websites (apart from the Govt) that asks me half the things you're fretting about. Storm. Tea-cup. So you were personally inconvenienced by being abroad and your card was hacked. So ? It happens all the time. So either take cash or make sure you have several cards with you. That's life.

[Anastasius]

My view is that we have to accept that there is a great deal of credit card fraud about and that if you have a credit card you are likely to be a victim of fraud sooner or later. It will be a nuisance, but the value of the card is that if there has been a fraud you can get your money back. Weigh that nuisance against the convenience of the card (and corresponding nuisance of not having one).

I have one credit card not associated with my bank account which is used for online transactions, including being registered where regular transactions are made (I use Paypal where available). I get a notification whenever a payment is taken from that card, so I can see at once (or when I wake up in the morning!) whether there has been an unauthorised transaction. I only use my bank credit card for face-to-face transactions with shops/businesses I know ; and I use my debit card more often - unless it's something for which I want the credit facilty (it seldom is) and at ATMs - (why would you use a credit card at an ATM?).



I know nothing - I feel pretty relaxed about it, all things considered and weighing the pros, cons and risks.

A delightfully, pragmatic and refreshing approach and I thank you.

[Anastasius]

I rather think Anastasius holds to the Panglossian view of today's version of capitalism, Dave.

Replace 'realistic and pragmatic' then I'd agree with you.

And I don't think that today's version of capitalism is any different from yesterdays.

[french frank]

A delightfully, pragmatic and refreshing approach and I thank you.

Pragmatism rules, OK? - given that I have been the victim of fraud twice and on one occasion I lost the will to live when I explained that Chinese hackers had taken over a legitimate (dormant) website after the company closed down. "Have you attempted to sort the problem out with the vendors?" No, I don't know who the 'vendors' were, other than that they're in China and are crooks who would in any case be unlikely to respond to a reasonable request for a refund.

I view fraud as just one of the ways one 'loses' money - most cases are perfectly legitimate (e.g. unforeseen repairs), a few fraudulent. The important thing is not to be so trusting that you risk losing everything you own. The rest go down to experience.