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cabalamat

> I've started using privacy.com

Which is US only. Is there anything like it for the UK?

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UK banks are already very good about refunding fraudulent transactions and associated fees:

https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/unauthorised-payments-accou...

"In most cases the bank must refund the payment without undue delay and by the end of the business day following the day on which it became aware of the problem, unless it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that you have acted fraudulently."

"When your bank refunds an unauthorised payment it must also refund any charges and interest you have paid because of the unauthorised transaction."

I would be very careful on this one.

Some providers are interestingly stubborn when it comes to charge backs and can hold on to the (fraudulent) vendors side even if you're clearly right.

Monzo in the UK is a prime example for that. An internet vendor charged me more than he should and refused to void the transaction (basically text-book fraud) and I filled for a charge back with monzo. I was extremely confident that it wouldn't take much however monzo customer service resisted to help.

The monetary value wasn't much however in the end I perfectly understood that this "protection" does not exist on the credit card issuer/bank side of things.

Be careful.

You didn’t file for a chargeback with Monzo, because they don’t offer credit cards. There’s less protection generally with debit cards.

Generally guidance is that you are entitled to a refund from the bank only if you did not authorise a particular transaction.

Does it matter? The simple reason they are there is to protect my interests. If they can't do it for a few quid, how can they do it for larger sums of money?

The Moral of the Story: Money institutes may not cover you like you think they will.

I've learned my lesson.

Again, be -very- careful.

Debit cards in almost all cases have less protections that are clearly stated.

Money institutes may not cover you like you think they will.

Not if you didn't read your debit card agreement, no. Nothing you've stated wouldn't be clearly spelled out in the agreements I've seen for debit cards. I mean, I can see how this happens: looks like a credit card, must have the same protections as what people online say about credit cards, right? Nope.

> If they can't do it for a few quid, how can they do it for larger sums of money?

If I remember correctly, debit card protections don't exist below £100, so they literally can't do it for a few quid, but they can for larger sums of money.

This isn't an example of Monzo being terrible, this is an example of debit cards being terrible.

Chargeback also apply to debit cards.

It's just that credit cards must offer chargebacks by law.

The laws around credit cards are much stricter, in the UK it is much safer to use your credit card online and for day to day purchases (with pay in full every month so no interest charges).

Monzo doesn't provide credit cards, only debit cards.

Banks have a vested interest to work with you for purchases made on credit because it's their money. Debit purchases have no such leverage and thus have lower protections.

If it costs more than £100, use a credit card in the UK as the CC company is jointly liable for any issues, even faulty goods.

UK banks are already very good about refunding fraudulent transactions and associated fees

U.S. banks, as well. Twice Citi has refunded me within minutes. Chase within hours. It seems the policy is "give the customer the money, and we'll sort it out later."

The point is to not have to need to dispute a charge.

One could open a MONZO account(Which is completely online and can be opened in a day).(https://monzo.com/)

You would get your debit card within a week max. You can transfer limited amount from your original bank account to Monzo account and even on top of that you can set some restrictions on how much amount can be withdrawn and there are some special features like POTS which are very useful.

I am not saying this is the best, but even if someone steals your monzo card details, you can reqeust for a new one and your original bank card details are still safe.

Note: All this works, only if you don't use a credit card.

The instant transaction alerts let you put a freeze on the account in a matter of seconds, so that's nice. I actually use my monzo account so putting low usage limits isn't practical.

Edit: although I guess they'd just do it in the middle of the night so doesn't really help.

Not sure about multiple cards, but Revolut give you a virtual debit card you can turn off and on, put restriction on, etc.

Revolut also have disposable cards that are valid for only one transaction.

Many banks offer this service without any third party. I don't generally see it advertised a lot, I assume because it's confusing to people who have no interest in it, but you can look up something like "virtual credit card" or "temporary credit card number" and probably find a bank offering it.

The very crude answer is to get a prepaid card and load it with enough to cover each purchase, then toss it as soon as it gets misused. Which works, but doesn't sound worth the hassle unless you seriously expect a bad outcome.

Yes I think so. I save with a credit union (just because, it is local and they do turn around with the money and give small loans to people which banks would not). They offer a prepaid debit card which I do not have but it is provided by 'The Change Account'

    https://www.thechangeaccount.com/

You can use Curve https://www.curve.app/

While Curve is indeed an excellent service, transactions made through it are not covered under section 75. See here: https://support.imaginecurve.com/hc/en-gb/articles/213620489...

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