Hacker News Reader

Comment by rendaw | Hacker News Reader

I assumed it was mostly to pay for chargebacks and fraud. What I think is crazy is basically anything < $10 doesn't need chargebacks, fraud protection, etc, and the fee is inordinately burdensome for those transactions.

On a $1 itunes song it would have been an >30% cut, you can forget about selling any small digital thing worth less than that.

View on HN

on the contrary, smaller transaction amounts are prone to MORE chargebacks because they are attractive targets for card testers

I agree, but that's saying because credit card suck in way X, they should suck in way Y as well to accommodate. Stolen credit card information shouldn't be a thing, and people shouldn't be passing security critical 20+4 digit codes around (think oauth).

Why wouldn't small items have chargeback costs? Do credit cards ban chargebacks for them? If someone buys something cheap, it doesn't come, and the credit card company refuses to allow a chargeback, that's going to make some customers mad.

Would you really file the chargeback paperwork for a $1 purchase? Even if you're scammed, it's at the level where you say "I'll be careful next time" and move on.

I might. There are 3 reasons:

* Money. This doesn't matter much too me, but it might for people who make a lot less than me. The comment I replied to was about anything less than $10, not about $1 specifically.

* Preventing future scams. By doing a chargeback against scammers, you're making it more likely they'll get banned. So you're helping to prevent other people from getting scammed in the future. It's a good deed. When I see phishing sites, I report them. Why wouldn't I report a scam?

* Revenge. Some people want to see the bad guys get punished.

I would not call it revenge but yes, if you do nothing because it is low value or not important enough for your time, bad people will do bad things more because they are not punished. I try to report spam to the registrar and hoster and I report fraud to the bank for that reason.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com