[oclug] A credit/debit card reader for the home ??

[Charles MacDonald]

William Case wrote:

> What I think would work for me is having a personal card reader attached
> to my computer.  If I wanted to make an online purchase, the
> communication of account numbers and passwords would be directly between
> me and my bank with only the purchase amount and name and some kind of
> purchased item ID being transferred to the vendor by my bank.

Depending on your definition of degrees of evil, PayPal does offer an 
alternative that goes part way.  If you give them your info, they will 
act as a intermediary for many vendors.  The vendor gets a email and a 
webpage that says you paid. Pay pal gets a small cut out of the payment. 
  (as does the credit card company).  It is only reliable with Vendors 
who offer PayPal as a payment method.

In some cases you can make a paymnet directly from your on-line banking, 
in which case YOU get dinged for the fees.

-- 
Charles MacDonald                 Stittsville Ontario
cmacd at zeusprune.ca              Just Beyond the Fringe
http://www.TelecomOttawa.net/~cmacd/
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