On 26-Feb-12 10:45, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 10:27:13 on Sun, 26 Feb
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
Like I said before, I had a $300 transaction in the USA which resulted
in the retailer having to make a phone call,

I'm almost certain that's because your bank flagged it as a potentially
fraudulent transaction due to being from a foreign (for you) country,
not due to the amount.

I use credit cards in foreign countries regularly. This was due to it
being an electrical retailer without C&P (which you would not expect in
the USA anyway), and not either the amount or the location.

Did you mean _electronics_ retailer?

If so, as previously noted that industry is known to have high
chargeback rates, regardless of amount or location. Card processors
have established processes for reducing fraud, but perhaps they don't
handle foreign cardholders as smoothly as US cardholders because the
former are rare here or because of legal complications in the event of
fraud.

and subsequently asking me for ID (which I thought wasn't allowed, but
there you are).

I'm not sure whether it's allowed or not, but it's common at merchants
with high chargeback rates. You can always refuse to show ID, but
they're not required to accept the card anyway.

I did think about trying a different card.

It probably wouldn't have helped, unless the transaction was flagged by
the issuing bank rather than the card processor.

And your hypothesis is that stolen/skimmed cards will turn up equally
likely in retail electronics outlets in the good and bad parts of town?

It's not _my_ hypothesis; it's a statistical fact determined by the card
processors.

I'm not sure about "equally likely" either, but retail electronics
merchants even in "good" parts of town have "unacceptable" chargeback
rates and are required to take extra steps that other merchants in those
areas are not required to take. It's possible such merchants in "bad"
parts of town are even worse.

And yet I can routinely buy things (expensive as well as cheap) in the
UK from electrical retailers, without any referral to the card company.

I don't get a "referral" to my bank at US retailers; however, they do
ask for photo ID, match it to the name on the card, closely scrutinize
my signature and compare it to _both_ my credit card and ID, and get an
imprint of the credit card--despite swiping it, which makes an imprint
unnecessary at other merchants.

That's actually what _all_ merchants are supposed to do, in theory, but
card processors let it slide for merchants with acceptable chargeback
rates. And merchants with high chargeback rates want to cooperate,
because high chargeback rates mean high processing fees and, if too
high, will eventually result in their merchant account being closed,
which is a death sentence for most retailers.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking