Posted by Rick Denney on December 07, 2000 at 09:03:56:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: OK,If Matt Walters can gripe, we can too posted by The Voice of Reason on December 06, 2000 at 19:43:16:
Cash? CASH? What's that?
How do you mail cash? The information on checks can be just as damaging as the information on a credit card, and it is likely handled no better than credit card information. And money orders cost money.
I use a credit card instead of littering the countryside with checks (plus it's easier to carry than a checkbook). So, I might have 20 or 30 charges on my card each month. But I still check 'em. It takes about ten seconds to glance down the list to look for the sort of thing a thief would do: That big cash advance or purchase of expensive resellable goodies or something similar. As a merchant, we have had evil customers dispute our legitimate charges, and I can tell you with some experience that the burden is on the seller not the buyer.
Joe: And those point-of-sale systems produce a printed receipt that the criminally minded can copy after you leave the store. The reason more don't do this is that it is hard to get away with for very long because of the protections put in place by the credit-card companies. I've heard stories of thieves in such positions who swipe the card into their own system to read the information straight off the card.
But you are right. Cash is the only way to avoid any chance of credit-card fraud, as long as the criminally minded fellow behind the counter or behind you in line doesn't see the wad of bills and decide to knock you over the head. When cash is stolen, you really do have no recourse. And that doesn't even consider the buyer protection features built into most credit card agreements.
Rick "thinking merchants should be more afraid of cards than users" Denney