Says Joe Buck:
Should some bad person get hold of your card number and misuse it, you're not out any money:
I'm not so sure....Checked the fees/interest lately? "There ain't no such thing as a free credit card theft."
Yes, it's true that this contributes to high interest rates (though defaults cost more than fraud).
Certainly not only that. In fact you pay directly for weak credit card security through taxes used to legislate, police, try, and jail fraudsters. Add to that the cost to society of keeping these people in jail instead of more productive occupations. Add the time wasted straightening out bogus transactions. Add the cost of delaying purchases and action because of the (maybe irrational) fear that no secure payment system is available. The argument that fraud existed before credit cards is only a technically correct statement. It does not bear. The point is, credit card transactions could be much more secure, at sometimes trivial cost, making much fraud disappear. Unfortunately, in this case, insecure credit cards are not an obstacle to banks making money, so why should they care? Credit card fraud does not prevent politicians from being re-elected, so why should they care? Same would apply to car manufacturers: easily stolen cars do not prevent them from making money, so why should they care? When 'bad persons' misuse credit cards, the cost to us is very real, just well hidden by all involved. Pierre. pierre@shell.portal.com