Verified By Visa: Encumbrance
What is Verified by Visa?
No one takes onus: if you ask the Bank, it’s Visa’s fault; if you ask Visa, it’s your bank’s fault. If you as the vendor, they say it’s required. No one will carry weight you “I decided this”.
Once it’s there, you cannot remove it without canceling your card.
Once active, it affects all your cards.
At any point you cannot register your password, that’s it, you have no funds. On ALL cards. Finished. Happened to me in Bali, so if you’re judgement “that’s crazy”, try arriving penniless in a beautiful island for a week. Some fun.
If there’s any upsetting purchase made, it’s no longer Visa’s fault, nor the vendor’s fault, but we still pay the extra levy to Visa to mask the cost of the occasional fraudulent transaction.
Why do we, as customers, accept this?
Why is it still “We accept Visa” when it’s really “We accept Visa with this in addition baggage only” ?
Yes, Mastercard has “seen the light” of this profit-center, and similarly absolves itself of any trustworthiness by passing it back to the customer.
Source: The Unusual