Discussion Thread II: Bots? What bots?

[Reynard-Miri]

Heart surgery is this Monday. We're going down tomorrow to be with him.

[Maxine MagicFox]

[PLA]

^ Never seen one.

[MrTwinklehead]

Like okay, I did understand it, but really, if I can, I want to avoid using any cards. But yeah, they are available in Sweden, but once again, I don't want to get into any card business.

[Archaic Sage]

You do realise that they're basically cash? They're essentially a gift certificate that lets you shop online with a visa card. Or just use a debit card, so you have to have cash in the bank otherwise it'll decline.

Charge cards are available but not often used in the UK from what I've seen. I know a few people who load up their kid's pocket money (allowance is the American term I guess) on them, so that they can buy stuff without the fear of money being stolen.

[PLA]

^ Yeah, my card is a reusable $$$-bill worth [account] moneys.

The worst part is that stores have card-slots aligned with three different axes. Fuck's sake, pick a design.

[Kimiko]

Credit cards are convenient for online shopping. For offline shopping I just use my regular debit card. I'd use it online too, but that rarely works outside of Netherland/Europe. I understand debit cards aren't much of a thing in USAland?

[PLA]

I guess Konami fired some more people.

[Maxine MagicFox]

[Archaic Sage]

Debit cards are literally everywhere in the UK, I rarely carry cash as you can pretty much pay for anything with a debit or credit card and contactless has made it even better. My iPhone friends use ApplePay a lot as well.

I've only had one instance of fraud and that was when my card was cloned in a shop and the money was immediately refunded upon reporting it to the bank.

[Kimiko]

Oh, I misunderstood then. I figured the popularity of credit cards over yonder meant debit cards weren't. Over here it's the other way around. Debit cards everywhere, but almost no credit cards. The only reason I have one is because online places only accept credit cards (outside Europe that is, but most places of interest to me are non-European), not regular debit bank cards.

I've had credit card fraud twice. The first time, ten years ago or so, was pretty big, €1000. Bank refunded it though. The second time was last month. Nothing big, just a few strange charges on my statement.

[Trifkin]

Yeah, I can understand the reluctance to put any kind of debit or credit card info online. I regularly get customers who order books through my store, even though it's sometimes more expensive than Amazon, just because they don't trust anything online.

[Maxine MagicFox]

That's stupid to me. There is just as much chance for your pocket or purse to be robbed as there is for your card number to be stolen. In fact if your wallet is stolen the police just make a statement and sucks to be you. But with a card the bank helps give you the money back.

[Reynard-Miri]

Tim got through the surgery okay, so that is good.

Also, he and Lyn (his partner) insisted that I am family. <3

[PLA]

Accountants are way more dangerous than cards.

Banks err on the side of shutting everything down in case of theft, because they're scurred of being held responsible.