Let’s talk about fraud prevention

Debit cards are amazing inventions. Wherever I am in the world, I can get access to the cash in my bank account through an international banking network (for a small fee). The name ‘Visa’, originally applied to credit cards and now increasingly found on debit cards, was adopted as a symbol of this worldwide acceptance. Well, that’s how it should work, anyway. Unfortunately, the modern prevalence of identity theft has caused my bank and many others to introduce a cumbersome fraud prevention system on top of this freedom. I first encountered this in force on a business trip in September – I tried to take money out of a cash machine in Taoyuan Airport, Taiwan without first contacting my bank to say I was going out there. Reasonably enough, it...

Posted by on Oct 27, 2011 in Thoughts | 3 comments