SpeshulEd 

Nada.

TejanoTrackie 

VAT is for them Europeans. Doesn't apply to us Americanos.

cDiff Notorious

Yeah, not VAT. They do charge foreign transaction fees though

SpeshulEd 

There was no foreign transaction fees on my recent orders to PBK and Ribble, paid through paypal.

cDiff Notorious

Oh ok so it only charges credit cards

TejanoTrackie 

Correct. Also, if you use a credit card through PayPal, you will be charged an international transaction fee, so I always have them use my bank checking account instead.

jlafitte 

Unsolicited financial advice: I predict that sooner than later PayPal will get hacked. And those who have their cash accounts transacting with PayPay will be left holding the bag.

TejanoTrackie 

Care to elaborate ?

jlafitte 

Probably everyone here was affected by last year's Ebay data breach; 138 million accounts including login info, DOB, card info, etc. That was in Feb/March, when PayPal was still an Ebay subsidiary.

There have been numerous high profile breaches recently, many at financial institutions including Chase and Citigroup. PayPal is an especially attractive target because, as a wildly popular transaction processing service, it accesses enormous credit and cash assets. The technical requirements of monitoring all those transactions are such that a compromise could go on for weeks before it is caught -- loke what happened with Ebay.

So if your cash accounts (checking, savings, money market) linked to PayPal get emptied, you probably have a fraud claim to rely on, but you've probably also got a serious cash flow problem in the meantime. If the same crook maxes out your credit on the other hand... you see what I mean.

TejanoTrackie 

I have real time monitoring and transaction verification on my checking account. Anything over $100 requires approval first. I've had my debit card number stolen three times, so now I only use it for cash atm withdrawals at my bank. My credit card is used for all purchases. Also I pay with cash for many small purchases such as haircuts, doctor visit copays, restaurants and other vulnerable places. Yesterday, I paid cash to get the battery replaced in my old Casio digital watch.

TimothyH

I work in IT. I don't do security but work with some world class security consultants.

On the enterprise side, the fact is that 99.9% of security breaches go unreported and many go unnoticed. I don't worry about the big guys so much as I do the small mom and pop shops who don't have staff or don't have the financial ability to hire a good company to do their transactions for them.

On the personal side, the number one way to get hacked remains an insider at a small business - someone at the doctor's office where they have your social security number and you use a card for the copay - this is classic. Emptying individual paypal accounts or bank accounts is common. My bank is not linked to my paypal for this reason and I don't keep a paypal balance. The only way to be sure is to manually check bank, phone and credit card statements every month and report anything suspicious immediately.

@TejanoTrackie has the right idea. They can't hack cash. I also don't do any banking on a phone.

SpeshulEd 

This is why your money is safer tied up in bike parts.

TejanoTrackie 

So, when you go to the grocery store to get food, do you pay them with bike parts ?

SpeshulEd 

Yep...just have to find the right store. Those Safeway ******** won't barter worth a ****. Costco only takes carbon or vintage steel, especially if you went overboard in the wine section.

jlafitte 

Sounds like you're pretty much up to speed. Yeah those Visa debit cards that the bank sends every few years, they serve no purpose to the consumer other than to get ripped off. When I receive one I cut it up immediately and distribute the pieces into separate trash receptacles.

A card dedicated for ATM use (i.e. without the Visa/MC number) is the way to protect yourself, and your bank should offer one.

jlafitte 

All good info.

As a network engineer I used to do security, and have had some interesting experiences. It's true, and everyone should know it: most identity theft is committed by insiders, people whose job authorizes them to handle the information which they then use to commit theft. It happens frequently at doctor's offices because they require a DOB to file insurance claims; if they also have your SSN that's all it takes to open a credit account. Unless you are applying for credit, never give your SSN to anyone. Never use Visa/MC debit cards - cut them into pieces and make sure they can't be reassembled. Shred any document containing sensitive information before it goes in the trash. Minimize the number of institutions that can access your cash accounts: your employer for direct deposit paychecks, a couple credit cards, and automatic contributions to savings/investment accounts should be all a person needs.

jlafitte 

Corner the market in $30 Campy track nuts and you could make millions.

curtiseddie

So....the tires?

TejanoTrackie 

The rules of this forum mandate that no thread may get past page 3 w/o being completely derailed. Most of us suffer from severe add.

SpeshulEd 

While I agree there are better ways to protect yourself and it's good to be cautious, I still think this is taking it a bit overboard. My SSN was my ID in college. We wrote it on every piece of paper that was turned in. In fact, it was that way at both colleges I attended.

curtiseddie

Noted.

jlafitte 

I bet you a roll of bar tape that policy has changed... in fact I'd be surprised if you can find a single college or university that still uses that policy. It's a violation of federal law (current FERPA regulations).

Posting Grades By Last Four Digits Of Social Security Number

"A student's social security number is, by definition, "personally identifiable information" under FERPA, and may not be disclosed without consent in any form. [...] While there are certain exceptions to this general prohibition, none permit an educational agency or institution to publicly disclose personally identifiable information, including the student's grades and portions of the student's social security number, from the education records of students."

SpeshulEd 

That was nearly 15 years ago so yeah, it's very possible. But it was at Michigan State, so 45k students were throwing down their SSN daily.

I dunno, piracy and hackers is something I give little thought to. Money in the bank is protected, credit cards are protected. Worse case scenario, I have to wait a couple of weeks for the bank to get things straightened out and get my money back to me.

We use our credit card for everything anyway (minus hidden bike purchases, lol), if it get's stolen (which seems to happen every 12-15 months these days), the new one comes in a day and the hardest thing to deal with is taking the five minutes to convert the bills to the new number.

I should probably be more concerned about these things, but I'm not.

jlafitte 

Heard. You get to a point in life and the main stuff you care about are a hard ride, a solid meal and a good night's sleep.

SpeshulEd 

Exactly. I just want to enjoy life. Worrying about the details causes far too much stress.