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Comment by reaperducer | Hacker News Reader

Since a credit card is required to use Lyft, why not just validate the name on the card with the card company and make it the issuer's problem?

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I just tried to create a driver's account on Lyft's website. There's an initial page where you give them your name. And then, deeper into the process, a form for supplying your name as it officially appears on your driver's license.

Which makes sense. There's likely a lot of drivers who want to go by "Tom" instead of "Thomas" or whatever their full official name is – which is even more important for drivers with very uncommon names who want to go by something more familiar/pronounceable. There's probably a decent safety argument for not requiring drivers to have their full real names be accessible to the user, especially in cases where a driver has an uncommon (i.e. easy to doxx) name.

I hear the argument but taxi drivers were always required to show their real name, so the same should apply to Lyft drivers.

The privacy of the driver is outweighed by the need for the public to feel they will safely be taken to their destination in an enclosed vehicle totally controlled by another party.

I'm not sure what the official rule is for NYC's taxis when it comes to the name display; fwiw you can see the official list of medallion license numbers and associated names here:

https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Transportation/Medallion-Drive...

In any case, rules are different for different jurisdictions and entities. If NYC TLC did have that requirement, then it's possible that real name display is mandatory for Lyft drivers operating in NYC, given that TLC has some oversight over services like Lyft. However, TLC also has some say over livery cabs. It's been awhile since I've been in a livery cab, but I think they do operate under different requirements in terms of what's required for display.

> I hear the argument but taxi drivers were always required to show their real name, so the same should apply to Lyft drivers.

You can definitely argue that they should show their real name, but it is not a good argument that because taxi requires it, lyft should as well.

None of the major card networks except for American Express validate cardholder name. The Address Verification Service (AVS) also only validates numeric values (so if your address is 123 Main Street, 123 Maple Ave will return a matching response)

Having worked around payments, I can guarantee you that card networks do check the Card Holder name. Better yet, they can match against first name, last name and middle name to adjust the risk rating of individual transactions.

Albeit, this is rarely used to block payments, because if they stopped payments when customers didn't put their middle name the exact way it's written on their card, nobody would be able to pay online.

It’s up to the merchant to decide. You can ask for as little as card number and expiry. All up to the merchant based on how they configure their payment processor

There is no error code that denotes invalid name. Sure the banks gateway fraud detection can decline auth(most don’t), but there would be no way to communicate back to the merchant that the customers needs to check the spelling of the name. I’ve also never seen it when I ran technology at a e-commerce startup that did millions of transactions of month.

I'm not so sure. I have a credit card under a completely different name (by accident).

I think the claim is that credit card processors don't validate names at payment time. Back before KYC became a thing you could sign up for a credit card with whatever name you preferred. I think it's a bit more strict these days.

Ah, well it was only a few years ago.

That feature is a configurable option (at wildly variable strengths) that is set up by the merchant when they are setting up their payment gateway. All the CC processors I have worked with provide these varying levels of Name/Address strictness.

Was always wondering about that, only occasionally misspelling a letter here or there to see if a transaction would get approved. Can anyone corroborate?

The crazy shit that happens when an address is entirely correct would make me hesitate before adding errors intentionally.

A credit card is not required to use Lyft. You can use credit from gift cards or promo codes, as well as 1 time payment methods like Apple Pay which are completed at time of ride booking and do not expose names

Are you sure about that? I don't have Lyft where I live. But, about a year back, I was given a Lyft code for an interview. When I got the code, the instructions made it clear that I needed to register a credit card for liability. I had my account created with my personal credit card and redeemed the code. I thought I was good to go. When I got to the destination city and tried to order a ride at the airport, it said I needed to enter a SECOND credit card for verification. Unfortunately I traveled light and didn't a second card on me.

To use Lyft, or to sign up? Using alternate payment methods makes sense once you sign up. I do it, too. But can you start a new account without a credit card?

You can't validate the name on a credit card. There is no error code that indicates an invalid name.

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