Ripping off the scared and gullible

From what I heard on the BBC Money Box programme last week, you don't get

*any* protection from using a prepaid credit card as it's not covered by the Consumer Credit Act. I may have misheard it, so I'll provide the link to the programme here, so you can check it out for yourself.

?radio4/moneybox

Where can I get one? (seriously)

email me and I'll send you an address where you can just send me money directly.

Why? Sending you money isn't going to help me commit fraud.

No but it will help me :-)

So, did you mean 'where can I get a voucher number' as opposed to 'where can I get one of these vouchers'? In which case the answer is the same , go online and buy one.......ironic for an organsiation aimed at people scared of buying on the net :-)

Hmm... :-)

Yeah, I meant buy a voucher number.

In message , Tumbleweed writes

I understtood you paid the £3.50, and got a voucher and a one off PIN. When the voucher was used then you get a new PIN.

How?

i.e.somebody nicked the voucher and also knew your PIN?

It appears to be aimed at those who dont have cards.

I think that is a different scheme, AIUI you get a paper voucher which cant be topped up. That is how they explained it n the radio.

Because you lose at least 3.50, plus up to 1.75, on every transaction for sure. This is shifting the cost of credit card fraud from the banks to people. I realise that indirectly we pay, but this is a direct method of making you pay as well.

On the radio, the spin was ID fraud and fear of transactions on the net nothing to do with people who couldnt get a card, in fact IIRC they even said that half their users were people who already had a card! The 'scared and the gullible'.

Why doesn't the government just issue some form of promissory note that is widely accepted and available to use by anyone? It wouldn't quite have the cache of a 'card' (one that taxes you at 50% rates) but nevertheless it might catch on.

In message , Virgils Ghost writes

They do, it is readily available in the following denominations : £5, £10, £20, £50 and in very small quantities, £1m.

It has!

Wot, you mean like cash?

Cache? Did you mean "cachet" or was that supposed to be a pun on "cash"?

Not much good for earning me extra Tesco clubcard points whereever I spend money thought is it? Now is it any good for protecting me when something I buy goes wrong and the company I bought it from refuses to help. Nor indeed will it allow me to overspend in one month with the knowledge that more money will be coming in the following month to make up the short fall. How many more reasons do you need? :-)

hmmm, I think you fell for that one JB!!

Not a lot of people know about those - and I believe they are all allocated anyway :-(

In message , Tumbleweed writes

Rats! I think your right! Baah!

In message , Miss L. Toe writes

Yes, mostly to Scotsmen!.

And the rest to the Irish. But we dont let you actually have them :-)

There was a very good film some 50 years ago called the Million Pound Note. Probably starring Kenneth More.

Tiddy Ogg.