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The security problem which all payment cards have is that when you give someone your card information, you give that someone the right to withdraw as much money from it as he/she desires from your bank account, anywhere, anytime. You trust third parties way, way too much. And it's because of this that you need to have your bank spamming you with phone calls instead of simply making your purchases in full peace of mind.
As Thom points out, Dutch banks have decided to fix this broken system by introducing a new payment method which is more akin to the way cash works : you give some amount of money to the third party, in a one-time transaction.
Technically, the final step of a purchase is to go to your bank's website to review the receipt and send your money, in a fashion similar to the way Paypal works.
The implementation has its issues, as an example there's no chargeback right when you use it, but it's already miles away from broadcasting your banking information everywhere on the net.
Edited 2011-05-05 06:52 UTC





Member since:
2006-04-03
You could live somewhere other than Holland if you don't have access to VISA / MasterCard DEBIT cards, which also work on iTunes FYI.
And I'd love to see these "more secure" payment options. Even with my VISA debit cards - I don't own credit cards - if I make an online purchase from ANY new source I get a phone call from my bank within five minutes confirming that it was actually me making the purchase, and similarly for any purchase over a threshold I can set. My debit cards generally have less than $100 in them at any time, I have regular transfers going in for regular bills / payments, and it takes me under a minute to transfer funds in via my phone (either via internet banking or phone banking) if I need to buy something, and the whole shooting match doesn't cost me a cent in fees.
That's good enough security for me.