Situation Normal

[hirez]

In receipt of a communication from $bank this lunchtime. 'Thank you for signing up with $debit-card-protection-plan' it goes.

Since I don't recall doing anything like that, I ring the silly sods and mention same. Suppressed panic ensues on the other end of the phone. Finally they read me the details of a couple of online transactions, both of which turn out to be Tesco, who are the only merchants I regularly use that employ the (seemingly useless) 'Protected by Visa' thing...

... Oh, wait. So $debit-card-protection-plan provided by $bank is actually P-b-V?

Does it strike you hopeless shower of bankers that mentioning that fact in your supporting documentation might be a good idea in order to protect your staff from needessly sarcastic customers? Clearly not.

(And no I do not want any f-ing online banking. I have been known to perform IT security and there's No Bloody Way.)

Comments

[badnewswade.livejournal.com]

The very thought of online banking is enough to freeze my very blood. The kind of dumbfuck shit that most computer users get up to would render even a relatively secure system entirely useless (forgetting their passwords all the time, having stupidlly easy ones, using unprotected Wi-Fi for transactions, etc, etc etc).

And the idea of my bank putting some shitty, third-party, badly written crapware on my PC so that I can be ripped off even more efficiently is frankly laughable.

If a person needs to buy stuff online, I am quite happy to reccomend PayPal, but only to people who have an IQ higher than that of a nematode worm.

[jeffsoesbe.livejournal.com]

My dislike of the "debit card with VISA link" thing is that if someone steals your debit card and goes on a spending spree (because VISA doesn't require a PIN number) then that money is GONE. Not spent but in a hold by VISA and you can get your bill and say "I didn't do this" but GONE.

Protected-by-VISA? Yeah, right.

- yeff

[hirez.livejournal.com]

In theory, chip-and-pin/EMV should stop that sort of thing happening. However, all that seems to have done is shift the blame away from the banks.

It's a pity Digicash never took off.

[bmlg.livejournal.com]

My bank once put 'overdraft protection' on my account without telling me. It worked this way: not enough money in this account for an automatic transfer? Okay, let's take the entire payment (not the $0.45 that was over) from, um, another account that is linked to this one. Oh, that other account isn't in the same name? Well, go on, it has to come from somewhere.
All very domino effect. And this was before online banking.
-Barbara

Let me write checks!

[jendama.livejournal.com]

My recent replacement card had PayPass enabled on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paypass#PayPass). I am annoyed, to say the least. Now I'll have to wade in voicemail hell in order to get a live person who can tell me how to get it deactivated. That's the last thing I need is to loose my card (or have it stolen) and then have someone go wave it in front of a merchant and deplete my account. Grrr. I hate banks and I also refuse to do online banking!