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Comment by systems | Hacker News Reader

I use a prepaid card online, which would have been a good safety net against things like this

Also he was able to get a refund, and i think in most places online, you can cancel the order

You don't get cash back bonuses with a pre-paid card. In fact, they cost money. I am not going to give up saving 3% on everything I buy just to avoid this rare error that was easily corrected for no lost money.

Where are you getting 3% back on all transactions?

Presumably on a credit card, which would also have more robust chargeback rights than debit cards typically do. Between that and the likely relatively high value of a customer qualifying for 3% cash back on every transaction, I doubt it'd be more than a minor inconvenience to have the transaction reversed, even if the acquirer declined to refund it - which didn't happen here, in any case.

Citi double rewards card

Citi lets you create virtual numbers with custom dollar amount limits and/or expiration dates: https://www.cardbenefits.citi.com/Products/Virtual-Account-N...

I hate to be pedantic, but Citi gives 2% IIRC, not 3%.

Might be a limited time rate, but mine is 1.5 at purchase and 1.5 at payoff.

You can get a "refund" everywhere, because it's an unauthorized transaction. If the merchant will not refund, you simply call up the card company and explain how you agreed to a charge of $10 and were subsequently charged $2,000. The only reason the article was phrased as "costing" the author money is for clickbait.

My bank set up a free sub-account with its own debit card that I use exclusively for online transactions.

I keep a small amount of cash in it at any time, and then do an instant transfer from my main account as needed for larger purchases. If that CC# were to get hacked, it would be annoying but not catastrophic.

Inconvenience level is pretty minimal and it’s served me pretty well.

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