Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bu.edu!telecom-request From: halldors@paul.rutgers.edu (Magnus M Halldorsson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Great US Telephone Conspiracy Message-ID: Date: 3 Mar 91 21:01:20 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 51 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 178, Message 5 of 10 In article <397@icjapan.uucp> jimmy@icjapan.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) writes: > I must admit that I find the public telephone debit cards to be > convenient, and for tourists and other transients they are great. > But I disagree that America should try to emulate them. Well, I disagree with you. Your first sentence has already stated one important reason. > First of all, I have problems with the whole idea of stored-value > cards. The fraud potential is way too high when you leave the balance > in the hands of the consumer. A while ago, somebody overheard my wife giving her card number to an operator. Somebody and his friends went on a major phoning spree, including Moscow and Ivory Coast, rolling up a $6000 bill. I didn't have to pay a dime, but the fraud potential argument of phone debit cards somehow doesn't impress me. > Stored-value telephone cards are also popular because using one costs > no more than using cash. I call on U.S. telephone and long > distance companies to eliminate calling card and credit card > surcharges. Good. That's argument number two. Yes, if the long distance companies would eliminate the surcharges that wouldn't hold, but I don't see that on the horizon. Some more disadvantages of telephone credit cards: - You need to apply for it. Whereas you could buy debit cards in a store or an automat, you must wait for your snail mail. - You need to have a fixed residence with a phone. The times when you don't have a phone, are exactly the times when you really could use a phone card. - It's a credit card. It has all the disadvantages of "spend-first-pay-later" mentality; plus you must be in good credit standing. - It requires long keystrokes. Given Murphy's law, the phones you find always use the other long-distance carrier, and you must therefore type in between six and nine digits before entering the nine digit number, followed by the thirteen digit card number. Of course, we could agree on allowing the advantages of both. Magnus