Fingerprint recognition in schools

[Ian Batten]

On 06 Oct 08, at 1325, Wendy M. Grossman wrote:

> Ian Batten wrote:
>>>
>>>> Cheques are over.  It may be that for a tiny minority they still  
>>>> have an
>>>
>>> They may be over for *you*. I think it's perfectly reasonable not  
>>> to be willing to trust online banking yet.
>> False dichotomy.  The choice here is a cheque, or making a card  
>> payment via a payment portal.   Are you saying that you do not use  
>> a debit or credit card online, and will only deal with online  
>> companies that will
>
> Fair enough - I do use credit cards online.

Which is lower-risk than online banking because...?

I don't know about you, but my primary credit card's credit limit is  
something like five times the sum total of the funds accessible by  
logging in to my online banking service (ie peak balance plus  
overdraft on each account).  And the LTSB one requires a fair amount  
of hoop-jumping to set up additional payees, so extracting value is  
quite tricky.

So with access to online banking, you could play around with a month's  
salary plus a small overdraft facility, and speed that money to my  
credit card account, and a few people I've set up payment  
relationships with (my parents, a small second-hand bookshop in  
Berkhampstead, FIPR) but haven't got around to deleting once I'd made  
the payment.  Although as I typed this I've been and deleted them,  
just to be on the safe side...

Meanwhile, with my credit card, you could buy some substantial  
consumer durables, sell them for cash and hightail out of Dodge.    
Much more realistic risk.

ian