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Your credit card is stolen. You place a phone call to the number provided in your tourist guide or in the local daily press. You provide your details and you cancel your card. You block it. In a few minutes, it should be transferred to the stop-list available to the authorization centres worldwide. From that moment on, no thief will be able to fraudulently use your card. You can sigh in relief. The danger is over.
But is it ?
It is definitely not. To understand why, we should first review the intricate procedure involved.
In principle, the best and safest thing to do is call the authorization centre of the bank that issued your card (the issuer bank). Calling the number published in the media is second best because it connects the cardholder to a “volunteer” bank, which caters for the needs of all the issuers of a given card. Some service organizations (such as IAPA – the International Air Passengers Association) provide a similar service.
The “catering bank” accepts the call, notes down the details of the cardholder and prepares a fax containing the instruction to cancel the card. The cancellation fax is then sent on to the issuing bank. The details of all the issuing banks are found in special manuals published by the clearing and payments associations of all the banks that issue a specific card. All the financial institutions that issue Mastercards, Eurocards and a few other more minor cards in Europe are members of Europay International (EPI). Here lies the first snag : the catering bank often mistakes the identity of the issuer. Many banks share the same name or are branches of a network. Banks with identical names can exist in Prague, Budapest and Frankfurt, or Vienna, for instance. Should a fax cancelling the card be sent to the wrong bank – the card will simply not be cancelled until it is too late. By the time the mistake is discovered, the card is usually thoroughly abused and the financial means of the cardholder are exhausted.
Additionally, going the indirect route (calling an intermediary bank instead of the issuing bank) translates into a delay which could prove monetarily crucial. By the time the fax is sent, it might be no longer necessary.
If the card has been abused and fraudulent purchases or money withdrawals have been debited to the unfortunate cardholders’ bank or
in my mind, is not valid simply because of what it might do to the
Modern day American capitalism is founded on the concept of credit. Credit, as defined by Dictionary.com, is “ Confidence in a purchaser’s ability and intention to pay,displayed by entrusting the buyer with goods or services without immediate payment,” (Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from Dictionary.com website). This pent up credit is what causes consumer debt to swallow individuals whole, robbing them of their financial security. This consumer debt, defined as “ Money owed by individuals, generally for goods or services that they have purchased,” has become a norm among our society (Consumer Debt. (2010). The reason as to why consumer debt is becoming a prime concern for Americans is the inability to make payments, predation of citizens by credit card companies, and how immediate relief leads to disastrous long term results.
We the consumer would rather pay less for any product that is needed or want. Ultimately we are the reason for high prices as well as low prices. Prices of products do not always stay the same and more popular products have higher prices than less popular products. These fluctuations, high prices and low prices are from the idea of supply and demand. Supply and demand defines the effect that the availability of a particular product and the desire or demand for that product has on price. Generally, if there is a low supply and a high demand, the price will be high (Investopedia). To understand the idea of supply and demand, the understanding of supply and the understanding of demand must be defined. The Law of Supply states that at higher prices, producers are willing to offer more products for sale than at lower prices, also that the supply increases as prices increase and decreases as prices decrease (Curriculum Link). The Law of Demand states people will buy more of a product at a lower price than at a higher price, if nothing changes, at a lower price, more people can afford to buy more goods and more of an item more frequently, than they can at a higher price and that at lower prices, people tend to buy some goods as a substitute for others more expensive (Curriculum Link). In todays economics these ideas are seen frequently in everyday life. The laws of supply and demand are seen in many ways in the company Apple Inc. Each year Apple Inc unveils a long awaited mobile operating system and IPhone. We can also see many aspects of the law of supply and demand in Nike Inc’s Jordan Brand. Jordan Brand has released a number of...
...only hear about the different ways that criminals are committing electronic fraud such as hacking in to somebody’s computer and stealing their credit or debit card information. There are also cases where peoples identities have been stolen and whole other lives have been built on them by another person. It all started with check fraud and although it’s not talked about as much anymore, it is still a very large concern for most business owners and people like you and me. The tips that have been provided for us can help protect us from fraud, but it is up to us to take the extra steps to prevent check fraud. We cannot sign up for check fraud protection the same way we could for credit or debit card protection or to help protect ourselves from identity theft. There are processes in place to help us once we’ve experienced check fraud but it is up to us to avoid it.
Ms. Prince stated she has limited mobility. Mr. Winters was living in her home to help her before and after her hip surgery. She said she kept the listed credit card in the drawer of a desk she used
American Express has been known as a commodity to most business travelers. In order to build its customer base, other consumers need to see the card as an indispensable convenience in their lives. American Express offers convenient methods to obtain account information, pay bills, find discounted products, and even make travel plans via the Internet. The Internet site offers these options, as well as other services, such as on- line help and assistance for small businesses. American Express realizes the need for many consumers to save time and money, but to still feel important and respected. The ingenuity and thought put into the services offered on the web site shows that American Express is genuinely concerned with the satisfaction of its customers.
Money, in the physical form, is rapidly dying and in its place credit and debit cards are
Where in 56 million payment cards were stolen and the issues related to the occurrence.
The purchase will be automatically debited from your bank account. Almost all Canadian financial institutions provide access cards with Interac flash. Also, many merchants participate in Interac Flash. This service is well known by “Tap to
Your identity is unsafe in more places than you may realize. Every store you walk in has the possibility or either having someone behind the counter, or someone hacking into a business from outside, readily waiting to steal your identity. Using your credit card in any store is never safe no matter what signs are posted around the store, or how big the company is; it’s not always the people who work there that want your identity. The article Identity theft growing, costly to victims in The Arizona Republic, J. Craig Anderson ...
In an article published in Newsweek, "The Sorry Side of Sears", McCormick tells about a recent case involving Sears. Sears was using a credit card and issuing it out to anyone that would use it.
during these operations. One can still charge his or her account without having an electronic card, using the bank
Price elasticity of demand illiterates the change in quantity demanded as price changes. Elasticity is the responsiveness of how a simple change in one variable can escalate another change in particular the change in demand and supply. The formula for calculating the price elastic demand is Price Elasticity of Demand = % ∆ In Quantity Demand / % ∆ In Price. Relating to Price elasticity demand an example I can give is assuming that the prices of electricity went up by 50% and purchases of electric went down by 25% by using the formula above we can calculate that the price elasticity of electric is Price Elasticity = (-25%) / (50%) = - 0.50. Therefore for every percentage electric increases the quantity purchases decreases by half a percentage. Price elasticity is usually negative which is stated in the example as electric prices goes up the quaintly of electric demanded will drop. In addition it means that it cooperates with the law of demand as price increases quantity demand decreases. The understanding of price elasticity is very important to know how the relationship between the price and demand of the product and how it can determine the products demand. If the quantity demanded changes a lot while the price changes a little bit that products is elastic this can mainly be products which have alternatives and products which can change consumers mind if price changes by even 1p. For example if the price of paracetamol A increases the quantity demanded will fall when consumers swap to the cheaper paracetamol B. No change in price and no change in demand this product is inelastic. For example as the price of petroleum i...
Communication modern technological tools that have been enhanced by Information Technology are having an impact on changing the very structure and communication of banking. That is, clients are enabled to make their banking transactions whenever and wherever they want. Bank clients, by just logging on their online account, can transfer any amount of money from their account to any other account, check their last processed banking transactions and apply for loans and other banking services. According to Keyes ( 2000, p.591) 'electronic checks provide consumers with the benefits of convenience and safety while allowing billers to maintain their existing depository relationships with their banks'. Further, e-mails has enabled bank employees to notify their customers of any new enhanced bankin...
Money in a traditional sense no longer exists. Money is becoming much of a concept than a physical material, and most ordinary bitter have not see the reality of the switch. People today are using credit and debit cards on a regular basis and in everyday situations such as meal purchased at fast food, highway tolls, clothing, groceries, gas stations, etc. all of these means of systems could be regarded as a cashless society or world. The question we might ask ourselves is what is a cashless society? What are the implications of living in a cashless world?