The use of a common credit card on Ebay?

Once again, you refuse to even consider legitimate research. That's the lefty's MO.

You're lying, again, lefty. Lott *was* a gun grabber until he did his

Thanks. I'll have to try that the next time I'm stranded in the lower 49. Interesting that my credit card works just fine in gas pumps in Bellingham, WA (just south of the border). I guess they know which side their bread is buttered on.

Maybe we're on different wavelengths.

When the card fails at the pump prior to fuelling, the jock inside says "prepay, how much?" I say "Fsck knows, I need to fill". It's say 1/4 on the gauge and I have no idea if the tank is 12 or 20 US gallons (which is another subject entirely). So I wind up having to prepay whatever they suggest as "more than enough from empty".

So the algorithm is to overpay and go inside to get the change, but not underpay?

$50 should do it (it's somewhat less than $4/gallon out here, although prices are rising). Round off a gallon to 4 liters and the math gets a little easier to do in your head or on your smartphone.

Smaller cars have smaller fuel tanks, ~15 gallons or so; larger trucks, larger tanks.

Another thing that annoys me: when the fuel gauge points to about 2/3 full, the tank is about half empty. Why can't vehicle manufacturers calibrate the fuel tank gauges..?!

Michael

Nope.

So, your problem is? The card will only be charged what you actually use.

Nett, yes. But they charge the whatever amount and the refund of the unused amount takes days, even weeks in one case.

Underpay and you don't get a full tank. Overpay (because you'll never guess the exact amount to fill) and the "change" is provided as a credit back onto your card, appearing at some future time.

Gas stations in the United States also accept cash.

Your banking system must be a hundred times worse than even ours. On a debit card it takes minutes to hit my accounts. On a credit card, um, who cares?

But then you have the guessing game and two trips inside. Use a credit card and there are no issues (well, maybe one trip, if you can't spoof the zip).

We've been using PayPal for many years and have had no problems. If there i s an actual PayPal card, I don't know about it. The PayPal account is linke d to the Mastercard we use all over and our checking account. The first tim e you open the account they make 2 deposits into your checking account to v erify it's the right number. PayPal payments default to the checking accoun t but you can easily select your credit card if you prefer (we do). When se lling on eBay, the buyer pays into your PayPal account which you can use fo r your own purchases. It's about as pain free as it gets.

Aussie banks seem to have decided they don't like that, are are in the process of phasing out signatures and making all live (i.e. not on-line) purchases PIN based. They're pushing the line that this improves security, and it does - for them.

Since I wasn't sufficient quick on the uptake in asking for the allocation of a PIN (I'd decided just not to use my credit card for live purchases at all), they sent me one anyway.

Sylvia.

They tried that in Australia. It went down like a lead-balloon with the competition regulator, and the policy was abandoned.

I'd have thought it would breach some anti-trust law in the US.

Sylvia.

After the Target (and more recent) debacle, I'm sure they'll do something more secure here, too. But the point still stands. If the transaction goes through the ACH network, you could be screwed. Not so, if it's cleared through the VISA or MC networks. Of course the CC networks cost the merchant more, so they try to default to the ACH networks. Maybe that'll change, too, now that they'll see the cost of the latest screwups.

Of course. They want your business. I should use credit cards more (for live purchases). Kickbacks matter. ;-)

Regulator? I just stopped using eBay and PayPal because of the financial games. they keep sending me spam to get be back but it's not worth it.

How is it a monopoly? There _are_ other merchants. Amazon doesn't play games (yet). We have far too much regulation, now. No matter what the lefties say, we *don't* need more. We need far less (and a few bad players to go out of business).

In our case - as visitors to your country - we used "travel cards". These avoid all the lousy spot conversion rates back to our home account and the per-transaction conversion fees also had we been using the CC.

Travel cards have the benefits of a known exchange rate (at the time they are loaded with - in this case - USD) and readily accepted wordlwide. Their downside, despite their similarity to debit cards (i.e. they access OUR money, not a line of credit) they have to be processed as credit cards. So the delay in the refund bites into our available balance. So *we* care.

We obviously also carried cash, but not in bulk as the travel card is generally easier. Our *real* CCs were used only on rare occasions.

Funny, our cards charge a 1% currency conversion fee.

Sounds like a really dumb idea.

That's your mistake.

to

they

people

And your point is?

?-)

EXCEPT. If you sell over $500/month you would like to turn that into Real Money, and Pay(NO)Pal *demands* you give them the farm in the form of a line of credit. That is open to Fraud In River City.