Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiosity, how do European banks avoid this issue? If my debit card or ACH info is compromised and someone drains my checking account, is there a way to use the stolen funds before the bank/court finishes their investigation?
Its called Direct Debit guarantee, UK had it for decades: "Immediate refunds. You can get a full and immediate refund from your bank (also known as an “indemnity claim”) for any payment taken in error." https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/dd-guarantee-in-plain-en...
Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
441–450 of 703 posts
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#442Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, you can always log into that WeChat account from another device... your WeChat username and password are maybe a bit more secure than all those numbers printed ostentatiously on your card, but are they really that different?
What other device? If I'm out and about and my phone gets stolen, broken, or even the battery just runs out, how do I pay for my transit ride home, where I -- maybe -- have a backup device? This is the -- pretty common -- failure case I worry about. And yes, I know it's also possible for physical wallets to be stolen. But cash doesn't "break" or run low on charge. Software bugs or internet access issues don't cause p…
A smartwatch would be more convenient than taking out the phone/card.
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Here in Europe it's the complete opposite. They're hard to sign up for (banks don't like giving them) and you get registered for the loan which means you will have a harder time getting a mortgage or car loan. Which part of Europe? That's not how it works in the UK. You build up a record by using credit products and it benefits your score to keep them in good order. Though it is how it works here in Australia. When…
The UK (again) has significant legal protections for credit that mean the credit card company is jointly liable for the debt in some circumstances And the advice for customers is often to buy mid-to-high value items using a credit card for this reason. If you order £10k of furniture for your new home from an online retailer that goes bust before delivery and you paid by credit card then you might well have a claim ag…
Lots of (for example) food stalls in London were popping up as card-only businesses over the last few years, because it was easier than dealing with cash. The EU rules (which presumably still apply until actually repealed) capped the fees pretty effectively.
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody really has rewards. We don't have them in Europe, and some people in the USA think they have them. What they have is crazy high credit card fees and the need to juggle a bunch around to get a few things credit card companies decided to buy for you en masse. When I buy a $5 latte, I give Visa $0.01. When you do the same, you pay $0.15. Come the hell on. "REWARDS". Smh.
Citi Double Cash is a 2% cash-back no annual fee card. Interchange benefits merchants too - there's real costs associated with holding cash, and average cart sizes are significantly bigger for credit cards. They also miss out on fewer sales. You may not value rewards programs but customers, card issuers and certainly those who operate those programs do. They're massive business. Frequently the only profitable part of…
The cynic in me wonders how long before they devalue them. It's easier to start changing the rules for "points redemption" when they aren't saying outright "You have $112.75 in cashback value" on the statement.
They recently had a promotion-- use the points directly to buy on Amazon, but if you paid that way, it was debased-- something like 120 to the dollar. It was actually better for me to buy what I wanted on credit, redeem the points as a bank transfer, and settle the bill at the end of the month.
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#445Earlier quoted context omitted.
As your post illustrates credit cards are really a solution developped for the deficiencies in the US banking system which have been exported to the rest of the world due to the dominance of the US market. 20 years when I was still living in Germany, hardly anyone had a credit card, while everyone was using automatic payments and electronic wiretransfers. I was very surprised when later (about 13 years ago) a US frie…
Credit cards are superior to debit cards in every way. Fraudulent charges can be reversed immediately, don’t impact you at all (since the money isn’t yours). Chargebacks can force a retailer to give your money back. The benefits are endless.
This isn't really a benefit, it's a fix to a problem caused by credit cards that doesn't happen at all (or at least rarely) with debit cards.
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#446Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's worth noting there's some real economic disparity in just who can get rewards cards with significant incentives in the US.
Yep, but also, those vanilla no-rewards Visa cards only have interchange rates as low as like 1.5% whereas those high-end cards like an Amex Platinum can cost as much as 3.5%. [1] [1] https://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/why-american-e...
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
This, absolutely. It is totally embarrassing to watch my UK family or EU friends interact with their banking systems and compare it with the US. To be fair, things are improving a little bit. But we're still so very far behind the EU banking system. Instant, cost-free transfers between any two accounts, completed faster than you can lift your finger off your smartphone.
> Instant, cost-free transfers between any two accounts, completed faster than you can lift your finger off your smartphone. This is available to most people in the US via Zelle. I have been using it for nearly 10 years I think. https://www.zellepay.com/get-started Ideally, the federal government would have already made it a utility available to all, but for now the functionality is there for those who can get a bank…
You can also schedule in advance “standing orders” which pay money to an account on a certain day. This is how pretty much everyone pays rent. We have direct debits where you can pay companies on a regular basis and almost everyone uses this for bills like for local government taxes, energy, water. With this, the company asks for permission to withdraw money for your account on a recurring basis with your details and you have to approve it. Guarantees are built into this system though, so if the company takes more money than they are supposed to, you can call your bank and they are able to pull back the funds.
Both of these have been around since the 60s so when online banking came along it was just implemented in that. It got faster at some point I don’t remember - it used to take about a day for UK transfers but it’s usually seconds now.
You can also send money abroad but it has slightly different limits and takes a bit longer. You just need the IBAN of the account though and can still all be done online in a few clicks.
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
PayPal is a joke when it comes to addressing fraud, it's completely hit or miss on both sides. My younger brother got scammed out of like $100 trying to order a chair from a furniture website that turned out to be some guy in China scamming people. The "online store" only accepts Paypal and when checking out, instead of the usual PayPal process is directs you to a page that's already completely filled out to send the…
At least going by your retelling, I'll say PayPal was right to refuse reversal. Mindlessly clicking through OK buttons is end-user negligence, not fraud. Your brother presumably had multiple opportunities to notice something was not okay before completely signing off on it. It's tantamount to signing a contract without so much as even glancing through the terms, then turning around saying you never meant to sign it.…
PayPal's "redirect the user through our services" flows provide more uniformity than some random site with a hosted-- or even baked-into-the-shopping-cart-- credit card form-- but I wouldn't say it's uniform enough that people would be able to reliably identify something outside the norm.
Just think of currency-- could you spot a decent quality counterfeit? Particularly if you're dealing with a more edge-case design that you don't encounter every day (say, a Series 1934 $50 note)?
Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
That has more to do with a foreign credit card. I haven’t signed in the US for a credit card transaction in at least 5 or more years. I do if I use my card outside the US.
You don't ever eat in a sit down restaurant or a bar?
Credit card processor doesn't require a signature.