When you renew your subscription, via PayPal, but using your credit card, because that’s the only option they’ve given us.
You will be required to provide, in addition to cc #, access code, name, expiry date, etc.,
-your full address
-your phone number
-your email address
Which the FAQ conveniently fails to mention.
Why they would require these I can’t imagine. If I had any other way to pay I would have.
I, for one, don’t trust these people and deeply resent being forced to go through them to renew. Especially since they demand information they do not need.
Yet another bad business move by the straight dope, in my opinion.
I’m not sure about the email address and phone number, but merchants get a lower rate with “card not present” transactions when they have the correct address. It’s an anti-fraud measure.
If you’re that worried about it, deeply resent it and think it’s a bad business move, why don’t you just drop down to guest and not pay?
On the other hand, if I stole your credit card and used it online, wouldn’t you be a bit annoyed if the online merchant didn’t ask for any of that info?
Wait, are you saying it was the Dope that wanted that info and that it wasn’t needed for the credit card portion of the transaction?
Really, cause I use my card a lot on line and no one requires my email, phone, and full address to do so, this is the first that I’ve seen it.
So I was somewhat suspicious. I wish I’d known before, (hence my starting a thread), I wouldn’t have left it so late, and I could have sent a check or Money order instead.
What added security does it supposedly provide I wonder. I mean I’ve given them the cc number, secret access code, full name and expiry date, it’s enough everywhere else why not for Paypal, I wonder?
Your name, secret access code (I assume you mean the CCID code on the back), CC number and exp date can all be acquired by anyone who has the card in their hand. Your address takes an extra step to figure out. Granted it’s not that much more work, but it’s one more thing. Like I said, it lowers the rates they pay on the transaction.
I just did mine and my wifes. The email makes sense as they send you a confirmation that you are paid. I am fine with that. Everyplace I have been to I have to put my address in, in fact I can’t think of anything I have purchased online where I didn’t have to put my address and card numbers in.
The phone number was odd, don’t recall ever doing that before. We don’t answer our home phone so I don’t care if anyone has that. But seems to me just type in 10 random numbers, or better use your area code and punch in 7 random numbers, or even better use the number for the Chicago Reader if you don’t want anyone to have your phone number.
I guess it didn’t seem over the top to me. Pretty much standard internet purchasing stuff.
If I’m understanding you correctly, Paypal requires those things because most Paypal accounts are set up for use with eBay purchases. You have to have a confirmed address to use for delivery purposes, and the email address is for communications with them.
I’ve never purchased anything online without having to give at least my address, even if I’m shipping somewhere else. I know it’s for verification, as I’ve messed up once before, and it freaked out.
This is a silly thing to say when someone is complaining (rightly, in my opinion) about an intrusive business practice - she doesn’t just drop down to guest because she doesn’t want to drop down to guest (and neither do I).
I went round and round with PayPal last year - you can pay for your SD membership with a credit card, but it took me days to figure out how to pay with my credit card and not have PayPal steal my credit card number back every time I entered it. I have no use for PayPal and their business practices, either, and I wish the Straight Dope hadn’t got in bed with them.
She said this was yet another bad business move by The Straight Dope, in her opinion. I’m a big believer in voting with your money. If you don’t like the way someone does something, stop giving them your money.
Besides, as others have said, it SOP. I challenge you to find a place where you can purchase something on the internet without entering your name and address. At least in the US, to the best of my knowledge, that’s pretty much unheard of. It lowers what the merchant pays on the transaction (when it matches) and it will help protect the merchant in the event of a stolen credit card.
Phone and address are to match against info registerd with the credit card company.
In the US, in the case of credit card fraud, the risk is on the crefit card company and not the owner. (If someone fraudulently uses my card, I don’t have to pay for it - the CC company is out the cash).
Therefore, the companies want to take steps to prevent fraudulent activity - so that people are less able to cause them economic harm. Checking to make sure that the person using the card can also provide the address and phone number associated with the billing address helps to prevent those who may have found or stolen the card from using it online.
It is the standard procedure to be required to provide this information when making online purchases, in my experience.
You’re kind of comparing apples and oranges, though - of course I’m going to have to give my address when I’m buying books to be delivered to me from Amazon. I don’t have to give my address when I’m buying music from iTunes, though, and I don’t see any reason why the Straight Dope needs my home address.
They don’t need your home address, they need your CC billing address which may coincidentally be the same as your home address, because comparing this address to the one the CC company has on file for you helps prevent CC fraud.
If iTunes doesn’t do this, well, that’s between Apple and the CC companies.
How am I comparing apples to oranges? I’m comparing purchasing a subscription to the SD via a ‘card not present’ credit card transaction over the internet to any other similar purchase. I assume you’re calling the comparison apples to oranges because this is a subscription instead of a physical object that gets mailed, but that has nothing to do with it. The billing address is all about fraud reduction and reduced merchant fees.
When buying things over the internet first got popular people would steal credit cards and send things to abandoned houses (or other peoples houses and get them before they got home from work). When that happened everyone was SOL. The credit card processors started requiring merchants to get the billing address and charging them more if the billing address the customer provided didn’t match the billing address the credit card company had on file.
This is the world we live in, people took advantage of a way to defraud the CC companies and they closed the hole. If you want to use a credit card in a situation where you can’t swipe it, 95% of the time you’ll be required to give the merchant your address. If that’s a problem, you’ll have to find another way to pay. But this isn’t something the Straight Dope just decided they wanted to do. Trust me, as a merchant I would be more then happy not to have to ask everyone for their address. It would save me from having this argument every day.
I don’t know anything about iTunes, but I’m surprised they’ll let you run a credit card without a billing address. Can anyone else confirm that? Is it really possible to download music from iTunes without ever giving them your billing address?
When I signed up for the iTunes store, I had to provide a billing address for my credit card.
That said, I don’t know how closely they check it, and whether I could have used 1313 Mockingbird Lane or something equally stupid, but it is a required field.
And the Dope doesn’t get your billing address. PAYPAL gets your information. Which, as mentioned upthread, they use to confirm your billing information and keep credit card transaction fees down.
Paypal are the least intrusive payment service I’ve ever used, I’ve had an account with them since 2002 or so, and have never had a problem with them. I use my credit card through them for online transactions, and I use them to transfer money internationally to and from my bank account without paying horrendous bank transfer fees. In return, I get some advertising in my inbox once every couple of weeks or so. I’ve never had them steal money from me, or send anything to my home address, or sell my home address to anyone else.
In short, stop being paranoid fucks and either pay by paypal or STFU and go back to being guests.
I’ve had my iTunes account so long I don’t remember what it took to sign up for it - I’ll take your word that I did give my address at some point. I’ll also take your word that every time I use a credit card online I have to provide all my contact information - I am almost always ordering something that must be delivered.
Next time you order something pay attention to the part that asks for the shipping address and see if it either also asks you to enter your billing address or if there’s a check box that says “Same as shipping address” or something along those lines.
The only thing I find strange is asking for the phone number. I’m in the US, and I can’t remember an online transaction that required that. Matching a shipping address to the CC billing address–SOP.
I see the phone number one fairly often. Often enough I don’t recall ever not having to give one.
While I don’t see it much anymore, years ago it seemed to be somewhat common that they’d ask for a phone number for the CC issuer (like CapitalOne’s number, not Visa’s).