Companies with webcards that are student friendly?

Not a bad idea... Have you noticed how some shop staff will leave a queue of customers standing to go and answer the phone? >

Well, the queue would still be there, after they had taken my order. Better to just let them deliver it than wait..

Why would I be paying?

Which, right at the beginning of the thread and all the way through has been mentioned time after time after time..

Strangely enough, I am happy to do my banking during normal banking hours. They sort of go together, banking and banking hours. It does take a small amount of mental effort to actually do some sort of forward planning, but I manage.

Is that a deliberate misunderstanding, or do you really not realise what we are saying?

What we mean by a "real" establishment (note the quote marks) is one where you are physically present when buying/paying for the goods or services.

But not for a lot of people.Although I live out of town, I am close enough for it not to be a significant event going in, and I will almost always use my card for anything over about £5-10.

I suspect my pattern of usage is closer to "normal" (whatever that is) than yours, or Mr X's.

During bank opening hours only.

OK. What I mean by "real" is a real physical shop and not a website with an office. That I would take as the common meaning of "real". Creber's - the grocer's shop in my local town, for example. It is happy to take orders by phone, paid for with a webcard, and deliver. But it has a real shop where you can go and buy things. Tescos, likewise - although even further to drive.

I agreed with you that, *in* a physical shop, you cannot use the card. But doing business *with* the shop - you certainly can.

The thing is a webcard - for phone and internet purchases. Of course it cannot be used for anything else - but phone and internet purchases can be made from "real" physical establishments using it - for all those establishments that do take telephone orders and deliver. Which covers just about all my shopping, as it happens.

What some seem to be arguing is that the card is of little use to them because they don't buy things by phone or via the internet and get them delivered. Perhaps if they changed to doing so - they would be safer. The only card details, apart from those places where it is not possible to purchase by phone or internet and get delivery, they would have to give then would be of a short life, very limited value, webcard.

The point, Alex, is this: If I use a real card 10 times a day, I have a certain exposure to fraud. If I am able to use a webcard for 5 of those 10 transactions, I have surely halved my exposure.

I must say that since my card was skimmed (the police found the culprit, who is now in prison), I no longer permit a salesperson to take my card.

If you want something computerish but need to browse through real items to find what you want, you can do the following. Take a laptop and GSM phone in the car to PC World. Go in the store and pick out the items you need. Go back to the car and use the laptop & GSM phone to connect to the Internet and order the items from the website for in-store collection. Go back into the store and collect the goods.

Their prices are generally cheaper on the website.

No, that does not follow, because the risk of (real) card details being stolen online is much lower than when using a card in person.

Therefore, using a webcard for those 5 transactions for which the risk of theft of details is already low, does not affect the bulk of the risk, stemming as it does from the other 5 transactions for which the real card continues to be used.

I am not even convinced of that, unless you are using "dodgy" sites online.

I think there is more risk with each physical card transaction than there is with each remote card transaction.

But the point at issue was whether a webcard would eliminate a "huge" part of the risk of having your details used for card fraud.

For people who hardly ever use their card in a physical (i.e. cardholder present) transaction, this would be true.

But I don't think most people fall into that category.

Cynic (cynic snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Come back out, find some scrote's had your window in and nicked your laptop.

But are still expensive.