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Comment by shawn-furyan | Hacker News Reader

So... you want no fraud liability, but don't want to be inconvenienced either?...

You could always look for a less zealous credit card provider, but generally speaking, the entity that takes the liability should be able to set the bar for risk. Otherwise you get subsidized risk taking, which has a way of getting out of hand.

You may well find that credit card companies who are not very zealous about security are merely more successful at weaseling out of the liability that their customers assume they are taking.

At the end of the day, fraud creates costs, and you can be sure that SOMEONE is paying those costs. If your credit card company doesn't seem very zealous about preventing fraud, then it's more likely that you are the one who will ultimately pay when the bill comes due.

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I want them to upgrade their technology past the 1990s so I don't have to share a semi permanent unique number with every person I want to pay, along with name, signature, expiration date, card type, CVV, zip code, address, and/or phone number.

THAT would cut fraud.

There are smarter ways of adding security - like letting me know via my phone and allowing me to cancel "suspicious" operations using it.

Disabling my card constantly doesn't help me at all, it's just a PITA. Imagine if any other service provider (webmail?) disabled your account frequently to "avoid fraud".

> There are smarter ways of adding security

So you assume. Have you ever investigated credit card fraud? Perhaps there are edge cases that are more difficult than you imagine.

> Imagine if any other service provider (webmail?) disabled your account frequently to "avoid fraud".

Webmail is absolutely lousy with fraud. Webmail companies explicitly disclaim all liability... so... you kinda bolstered my point there. That is, you helped add the significant texture that companies that disclaim all fraud liability can be pretty lousy at preventing fraud.

To reiterate: The entity that accepts liability should be the entity that draws the line on what risks are acceptable.

Credit card companies are pretty unique in the types and magnitude of risk that they accept and manage. They already do quite a high wire act balancing fraud prevention against user convenience. And despite some things that seem inconvenient on the surface, they are typically still the most convenient way available, by a wide margin, to conduct most payment transactions.

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