please empty your brain below
Or you get a non-Visa card ...

Debster | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 8:10 a.m. | #

It's on Amazon for £1.98. Check out http://tinyurl.com/6m92go

Would you like it as a Christmas prezzy?

Cheers,

Parky

Paul Parkinson | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 8:34 a.m. | #

It's on Amazon for £1.98 plus £2.75 postage and packing. Total £4.73. So I think not.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 8:44 a.m. | #

Mastercard have an equivalent and near-identical service, so you can't win.

And is of course for the protection of the retailer, otherwise they wouldn't bother implementing it on their site. Most likely, the retailers have been told if they don't do the the verification thing, they'll be responsible for the cost of transactions that turn out to be fraudulent, which is what happened when chip and pin was brought in.

Graham | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 9:18 a.m. | #

You misunderstand. Do you want it as a Xmas prezzy from your loyal readership?

Paul Parkinson | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 9:21 a.m. | #

Get yourself a paypal account then.

Bina | 14.12.08 - 9:27 a.m. | #

I have a Paypal account. But Foulshams don't give me the option to use it.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 9:33 a.m. | #

To be fair, it's not a terrible idea in theory to make this kind of thing compulsory. Personal choice is great and all that, but (in my experience) banks do refund fraudulent transactions - a good thing, but with a cost. (And now a cost not just to the bank but to the taxpayer too!)

I know this sounds a bit of a stretch, but it reminds me of what always bugs me about the anti-ID card campaign: yes, it's a waste of money and yes, it will likely do more harm than good but there is a pressing need to do something against identity theft. (Not that I'm suggesting ID cards are the answer but just that the status quo will not last either.)

[And now you've got me started: the most hugely annoying thing banks do is issue alarmist press releases about people releasing 'personal information' on social networking sites. "With your date of birth people could commit all sorts of fraud!" Yes, only because the financial services industry has been grossly negligent and would rather arrogantly appropriate my personal data rather than develop its own security systems...]

Red Dalek | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 9:43 a.m. | #

By the way, you could buy a proper reference book with even more useful info in it:
http://www.whitakersalmanack.com...p?
page=home.asp

dg writes: The £45 version or the £20 edition?
No thanks, I'll stick with the £2-ish option.

Bina | 14.12.08 - 10:31 a.m. | #

Verified by Visa does usually have an "I don't want to register for this hideous, inconvenient and annoying service" button hidden away somewhere. I used it earlier in the week when trying to pay online with one of my blissfully unverified Visa cards.

dg writes: Alas, my choice was "Activate now" or nothing.

Will | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 10:59 a.m. | #

You should be able to set it up via your bank's own website. Once you have, it's very quick to just enter your password every time you make a purchase.

But, I totally agree. When I first saw the mastercard verification scheme pop up I rang my card issuer and had a very similar conversation with the floor manager to your 4th and 5th paragraphs.

Apparently I was the first person to ring to make any comments on it, so he assumed it wasn't an important issue for most people. I made the point that it should have been publicised like chip and PIN so people knew, but he just kept telling me that the fact that no-one other than me had commented proved I was incorrect.

As I always say, if no-one can be bothered to complain, companies just assume no-one is concerned, so the 'stupidity' (call it what you will in each individual circumstance) continues unabated.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 10:59 a.m. | #

Consider yourself lucky for not having had your credit card details stolen, it's happened to me three times, once involving a federal crime (someone stole outgoing mail from my apartment building and got the numbers from that). I said "OK" to V by V and will take it as a good thing that there needs to be an extra step--believe me, it is much less of a pain to do one more password than having to go through and change all of your automatic payments to a different account number!!!

NFAH | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 11:36 a.m. | #

This has happened a few times to me. Up until recently, I was able to bypass this extra 'security check' completely. Alas, it seems to me that they're taking away this option, forcing us all to go through this extra step whenever we want to buy something on the web.

Surely the credit card companies could have thought of a less disruptive way to improve our security online?

By the way, Waterstone's sell Old Moore's Almanack for £2.20 with free delivery. However, I don't know whether or not a Verified by Visa page will pop up when you buy it, but I guess it's worth a try...

dg writes: Waterstones say OM is "Unavailable"

Andrewh | 14.12.08 - 12:50 p.m. | #

My banks informed me of the scheme ages ago (a year?) and I declined but like you dg, eventually came across sites where I couldn't progress without it. I went back to my card issuer to set it up, however, as like you I wasn't overly impressed with the little window that popped on on the merchant's site.

Is it primarily for my benefit? Probably not, but it's a comparatively small extra step for the convenience of being able to carry on doing a large proportion of my non-food shopping on-line. IMHO, of course.

NiC | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 12:57 p.m. | #

The annoying thing about Verified by Visa is that in the real world it just plain doesn't work. It's the name thing it really falls down on. You would think that, if verifying your Credit card, you would enter your name as it appears on the card.

Not so - you have to enter your first and last name only, all in lower case. No-one tell you this, of course, so what happens is the transaction is rejected, your card is suspended and you have to ring your card provider.

Still - it's a good thing. Now I don't spend money using my Visacard - if it takes me to a VBV window I backtrack and either pay on my mastercard, or just don't buy at all.

And as you say - the option not to register no longer exists, because if you're registered at VBV and your card is used fraudulently it is your fault not the bank's, and you're not covered.

Simon | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 1:18 p.m. | #

Verified by Visa and the similar Mastercard system is being insisted on by the card payment companies and not the retailers.

You're quite right it looks just like a phishing site. On our web site we are now losing a larger percentage of customers at the payment stage that we are used to.

I expect Visa did tell you but it was probably in the heap of junk mail that you throw away without reading when your statement arrives!

Martin | 14.12.08 - 1:27 p.m. | #

It's available at the book depository for £2.59. No delivery charge.

HoosierSands | 14.12.08 - 2:57 p.m. | #

If the book depository is charging £2.59 for a £2.20 book, then I bet they've included postage and packing in the price.

But... hurrah, they don't use Verified by Visa in their online shop. So a copy of Old Moore's Almanac is now winging its way to me, and might even arrive by Christmas.

Thanks for the tip.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 3:21 p.m. | #

Dear Grumpy, there are some deals on Amazon (a 2007 edition going for 5p) that you could try. I really do recommend the WA as it is an amazing source of info. New editions usually come with a quizz which is generally extremely challenging to do. (Dare I say it, more interesting than certain blogs).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/
ref=nb...itakers+almanac

Bina | 14.12.08 - 3:44 p.m. | #

My bank did manage to tell me about verified by Visa before I had to register on their phishing site. They even suggested I could set it up by phoning them... so I tried. Not sure they'd actually told their employees about it unfortunately. Oh well, done less online shopping this year than I have for ages.

James Taylor | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 4:28 p.m. | #

In principle it's a good idea.

The idea is that to complete a transaction you have something you \\_have\\_ (the card with the details) and something you \\_know\\_ (your password).

Of course that was already true 'cos you had to know your address but hopefully your password is less easy to guess.

You're right that the implementation of it sucks and the lack of advertising is terrible.

I think people should be able to opt in to the system if they're paranoid, but forcing it on people is wrong.

I just keep a (very) low limit card for any on-line use that I don't 100\\% trust (and I pay cash in real life). Works for me.

SpaceDog | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 7:28 p.m. | #

Alternatively, you could write it yourself. I am sure Old Geezer's Almanack would be very entertaining (and contain useful information about London).

Debster | Homepage | 14.12.08 - 7:47 p.m. | #

Oh how I laughed when I read this.

Oh how I wept when my transaction was declined, after resetting my passphrase for the nth time by "Muddled by Maestro".

Damned security. So secure I can't even spend my own money. GRRRRRR.

sboy2010 | 14.12.08 - 8:26 p.m. | #

Use American Express (Amex). Avoids Verified by Visa and the similar scheme Mastercard has. Amex don't (yet) have anything like this.

Jon Combe | 14.12.08 - 11:25 p.m. | #

@Simon. Some banks are better (or things have improved) because when I registered my Lloyds-TSB card it wanted the name exactly as written on the card including the Mr on the front (though it wasn't fussed about case).

@SpaceDog. unfortunately this well known principle doesn't work with online CC transactions. The Something-you-have reverts to Something-you-know i.e. the number. There is no way they can verify that you have the card. The three digits on the back was a futile attempt to achieve this. There is a better scheme on the way that will ensure that you really have the card http://www.dailymail.co.uk/scien...d.html?
ITO=1490 (sorry it is the Daily Mail)

Rick | Homepage | 15.12.08 - 11:27 a.m. | #

If you think VbyV is bad, just wait til you get to the bit where you can't remember your password, and change it.

Truly laughable "security".

Lyle | Homepage | 16.12.08 - 8:51 a.m. | #

Very funny! I hate that verified by Visa, but I never thought about it in the way you just wrote...

James MacAonghus | Homepage | 16.12.08 - 9:40 p.m. | #











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