Safety And Security Excuse

Safety and security have become the universal excuse.

I tried several credit card transactions, using a different card than I typically use multiple times a day. All were declined. Called the bank and after 15+ minutes on the line, they explained they "monitor for a potential fraud for my safety". And after I confirmed the transactions were legitimate "it would take us up to an hour to update the system" so please try again later. And many times they went on explaining how much fraud they see from that merchant.

The situation is different. That bank just does not have a proper authorization scheme in place. And safety is just an excuse. A very easy and sooo often abused excuse.

The other bank's card (which I typically use many times a day) does not have this problem.

The reason is the other bank has a companion app that whenever there is a doubt about a charge, pops up a prompt with the transaction details, asking to authorize on the mobile device. Simple and efficient. And I have never had to call them and wait for an hour to resolve the issue. And  have never experienced a fraud, using the card for many years almost everywhere.

Two years ago I posted on how it worked. And it has been working flawlessly for all this time.

Whenever a transaction hits the bank's fraud alerting system, it pushes the notification to approve the transaction. One fingerprint is all that's needed.

Apps solve problems. Real problems. They do. An app today may be foundational to your business. And this "for your safety" excuse is very often not bought by your customers. It is just lame.