Before the dawn of online shopping, most people went into a store and paid with their card over the counter. They could see where their card was at all times and believed their details to be safe. As we entered the new millennium, online shopping soared and within no time at all consumers were purchasing food, holidays and even cars via the power of the internet.
But as Peter Parker would remind us (a.k.a Spiderman) with great power comes great responsibility….and the power of the internet should not be underestimated, nor sure should our responsibility to ensure it is used for, in true super hero theory, the good of the people.
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with the above which is why, when such a powerful tool came along, they abused the power of the internet for their own gain – the term you’ve probably referred to such people with, is….fraudsters…or most likely, much less favourable names! 
As we all know, as online purchasing became standard practice, this raised many opportunities for fraudsters to hack into our personal banking details and make use of the money we’d worked hard to save.
To try and address the issue of online fraud, the last few years have seen the introduction of Chip and Pin (2005), which has in fairness, seen a reduction of nearly £60m in counterfeit and fraud on lost and stolen cards (a drop of 24%) compared to 2004.
In addition, just last year we also saw the integration of 3D secure which forced many consumers to input a password into a website before the online purchase would be confirmed. Unfortunately, in the latter case, many consumers actually thought this process itself was a “hacker” due to the lack of publicity this new security measure had achieved. Despite this, confidence in protection in our banking information has been reformed slightly by Barclays successful introduction of the pinsentry machine, which although a pain to carry around, has significantly reduced fraud on their bank accounts.
Whilst the government and banks tackled the fear of online fraud, yet another worry was to hit consumers as the spring of 2008 saw the collapse of several key airline and holiday companies, leaving many consumers without either a holiday – or a refund of the money they had paid!
As the recession continues, it’s clear thousands of pounds of consumer money has been poured down the drain by purchases they have made which are then void due to company liquidations. Many a consumer asks why they should suffer because a company goes bust, and I have to say I agree.
In the development of ClearCash, this was a key issue for us….for many reasons including the fact that I too have been subject to this situation and lost hundreds of pounds. To protect ClearCash clients from this in the future, we’ve introduced Purchase Protection. In the current climate, I think as a company offering a financial money management system to you, we take great pride in acting on the responsibility we hold to protect your money for you, as best we can. Purchase protection helps us do that.
To read more about the benefits of prepaid cards – particularly in a time when everyone is watching their pennies, you might find this article of interest. As the prepaid card V current/credit card debate continues, I feel ClearCash is closing the gap and offering more perks and tools than ever seen before in this marketplace for people who need a good, strong, and honest, helping hand.
Tags: 3D secure, Chip and Pin, ClearCash, PrePaid Card
