by: Peter
March 9th, 2010
Who pays for credit card fraud? In my experience it’s the trader who pays but you wouldn’t believe that if you were a member of the public.
The government makes a big play of consoling the poor credit card companies for the terrible losses they suffer from devious criminals organising to defraud them of their hard earned profits. They berate the police for not dedicating enough resources to catch the culprits who so cleverly outwit the sophisticated fraud proof card systems, and of course this explains why the charges for credit card processing have to be so high it’s all perfectly justifiable isn’t it?
Well no, it’s not. Definitely not, for all of us who do online trading. When my business has a fake credit card payment authorised and later disputed then my business loses the money not the credit card company. Furthermore if they authorise too many fraudulent payments they then threaten the trader with a loss of this vital service. To add insult to injury the credit card companies use this same excuse to increase their rates per transaction even today when money has never been cheaper in UK history (if your big enough to get access to it).
So who pays for credit card fraud? WE DO THE TRADERS PAY every time. So what is the answer? We need more technology and better technology and it is possible but of course it costs money and takes time to introduce however I am certain with all the huge losses that the credit card companies are suffering from fraud today its all well in hand and racing along at this very moment.
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Rating: 2.3/5 (3 votes cast)
by: Peter
February 26th, 2010
There is lots of talk at the moment about the evils of the Google monopoly and in truth it’s tempting to jump on the bandwagon and cry wolf.
I was particularly peeved when they went public and only shared their company with settlers in the colonies when quite a few of us Europeans would have liked a slice of that cake. The China relationship wasn’t entirely noble either looked at from the position of those of us not benefitting from the balance sheet so why not get in there and give em what for.
The problem is that what they have created is incredibly useful and I don’t know what you could easily replace it with and certainly nothing government created would do a better job either in the USA the EU or even in our own UK. I think the real issue is that it is a worldwide monopoly and it feels like a USA tax on world business and that doesn’t seem right.
I think it would be more true to the Google motto of “You can make money without doing evil” if it started to pay tax on its profits in the countries in which it made them and then perhaps more good would come of the monopoly it holds and there would be less criticism of its position.
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Rating: 1.0/5 (1 vote cast)
by: Peter
February 26th, 2010
Did you know that it uses less electricity to turn a light on and off than it does to keep it on?
For years I believed that turning a light on and off regularly used more power and that it was therefore more efficient to leave it turned on if it was only going to be turned off for a few minutes. I now regularly annoy people by turning lights off to save the planet, well to be honest it actually saves me money so I now win both ways.
I mention this fact because there is a lot of attention at the moment being given over to some people’s belief in Homeopathy and how it works for them and why we should continue to spend NHS resources providing it. In fact its actually peanuts in NHS terms, about £4m I believe (that word again) so I don’t think it’s much of an issue right now, but my point is that if everybody believed in Homeopathy then, just like my lights issue, if it wasn’t actually true then it would be a big issue.
I think it’s very important that whenever possible we should share the facts and the evidence to support what we believe, that way it’s not quite so annoying when it’s always dark when you walk into the kitchen.
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Rating: 4.0/5 (1 vote cast)
by: Peter
February 26th, 2010
Don’t you find its very reassuring that even in these extraordinary times of financial and economic turmoil, while our businesses are struggling to survive and our young people are desperate to find jobs that we can still find time to worry about the bigger picture?
So far we have dedicated a whole weekend worrying about the stressful working environment of a few people in 10 Downing Street. No doubt this subject will consume several more days of high level disruption until we flock to some other distraction that can help us avoid reality.
I listened last night to the inane headline that we are going to stop early release of prisoners supposedly because a small number of them had committed new crimes in the 18 days they would otherwise have spent in prison. Surely we can understand that this would have happened 18 days later in almost every case, nothing has changed. It’s all just another distraction we can use to avoid dealing with the big issues. If we must be distracted from reality please let’s do it with some positive stuff we can feel good about.
Even better lets propose some of our own solutions if there is anybody listening. For instance since most countries for obvious reasons don’t want to send their own soldiers to “our” war zones why can’t they just lend us some helicopters. Is it that difficult to find ideas?
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by: Peter
February 26th, 2010
Why is it that the only people who ever seem to make a cold sales call are the ones with nothing much to sell.
In general I try to listen because it would be tragic to turn away a great opportunity to make a good saving or identify a new product but that’s so very rarely what I hear. The rule seems to be the poorer the offer the harder they try to sell it. I think the ones I hate most are the calls where they don’t even know the name of the company let alone the person they are calling. Is this a government sponsored work experience scheme or are people shelling out their own money to destroy the telephone marketing business altogether?
I tell myself that this must work or why does it persist? At least I understand why email marketing bedevils my inbox it’s because it’s so cheap to do, virtually free in fact. The solution to this I once believed was to give email a cost and that would stop it but given the comparative cost of telephone sales and the fact that it continues so wastefully I don’t know even if that would work. My guess is it probably costs about 50 pence per contact minimum for cold calling. On that basis if sending an email was even 2% as successful as cold calling it would make emails equal value for money at 1 pence each and even that is probably 10 times the actual cost of email today. So what’s the answer?
I suppose it’s like the pleasure of taxation just get used to it because it’s not going away.
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Rating: 3.0/5 (3 votes cast)
by: Peter
February 26th, 2010
It feels odd to me that in a country that prides itself about entrepreneurial spirit, often in that communal self congratulatory way that we are inclined to do at events with a free bar, we provide little or no recognition to the small business people who achieve it.
Sure there are Knighthoods and Peerages for the leaders of big business and there is glamour and public homage to sports and media celebrates. But what about the thousands of small business men and women who provide dozens of families with employment, comradeship, sickness benefits and more importantly perhaps a stake in the world of work.
Small business people who pay their taxes, collect HMRC’s taxes and VAT, pay Corporation Tax and haggle with the Knights and Peers representatives for expensive bank loans and a common sense approaches to red tape and institutional bureaucracy. Where is the public recognition for what these people put into society other than the general stereotype of the greedy boss living off the backs of noble workers?
What do I want? I’m not sure but it does feel like something is missing and it’s not a seat in the House of Commons nor is it a place in a reality TV or game show. I just feel a bit short changed and I bet I’m not alone.
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Rating: 2.0/5 (1 vote cast)
Who pays for credit card fraud? In my experience it’s the trader who pays but you wouldn’t believe that if you were a member of the public.
