From: Chris Blunt 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Continuous charge authority on debit cards
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 17:28:39 +0800

On 6 Sep 2004 08:25:13 GMT, Alex  wrote:

>Without a hint of irony, Chris Blunt  astounded
>uk.finance on 06 Sep 2004 by announcing: 
>
>> On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 21:37:13 +0100, "Adrian Boliston"
>>  wrote:
>> 
>>>"Alex"  wrote in message
>>>news:Xns955ACD13BA58Falexl2@130.133.1.4...
>>>
>>>> No, you can't.  Unlike Direct Debits and Standing Orders, CCA details
>>>> are 
>>>not
>>>> held by your card issuer who is obliged to make any payment authorised
>>>> by 
>>>you
>>>> (unless it breaches some other condition of your agreement such as
>>>> taking 
>>>you
>>>> over your limit etc.)
>>>
>>>You would have thought that with today's technology that a CCA could be
>>>"registered" by the merchant, so that it shows up as a CCA when you log
>>>into your credit card online interface (a "my CCA's" screen).  This way
>>>it would work more like a direct debit equivalent for credit cards, and
>>>would become more widely trusted by consumers and may become a more
>>>popular and convenient payment method as a result.
>> 
>> Good idea, but I still don't see why charges from a particular
>> merchant cannot be blocked by the card company at the cardholder's
>> request. 
>
>So you can never purchase from that merchant again?

Why not? You'd just need to ask the card company to remove the block,
just as you can re-establish a direct debit after canceling it.

>> Since there will have been previous transactions on the
>> account, the card company has all the information they need to
>> identify that merchant. Why can't they just be added to some kind of
>> blocked list and decline any further transactions from that company?
>
>Is it really so much of a problem that issuers worldwide need to change their 
>processing systems to add this facility?  If there's a problem, chargebacks 
>result.  If it keeps happening, the merchant's acquirer can always shut their 
>facility down.

Well it does seem to be something a lot of people have problems with.
The frequent discussions on the subject here, and the number of times
it gets raised in the media seems to confirm that.

Why would it require issuers worldwide to change their processing
systems? Credit card companies can already decline authorisation for a
variety of reasons. This would be just one more reason to do so.

Chris