Re: Cardholders Kept in Dark After Breach

> Well, unless, _you_ keep a record of everything you charge -- date and
>> amount. And match them against the statements you get. It's not >> really rocket science. > For checks, that's practical. (It helps if you get the original checks > back, something that will end in the US soon).) > Where there are dozens or hundreds of transactions as on really busy > cards, it becomes difficult. Particularly since the name and date of > the payer on the statement may differ from that on the receipt. And, > in the case of international transactions, the amount will differ, > too.

What we *need* is more information on our statement about each credit-card transaction. I'm annoyed by companies that operate under multiple names and make genuine charges look fake.

Here's what should be required for each transaction:

Name of seller (which MUST BE THE SAME as was given to the customer at time of purchase); City and state or country of seller; Telephone number of seller, which MUST BE CORRECT or the charge is considered invalid; Description of item purchased (or of the most expensive single item if there are several on the invoice)

That would make it a lot easier to reconcile credit card statements.

The present system still seems to be designed for people back in the

1970s who had only a couple of charges per month. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One problem with your list of requirements is that sometimes, in a family, one member of the family -- let's say the husband for example -- likes to use the net to look at some, well, 'perverted' stuff and charge his viewing of same to the family credit card. But then, some other member of the family -- let's say the wife for example -- has the duty of reconciling and paying the credit card bill each month. The husband does _not_ want his wife seeing an entry for a purchase on the credit card bill entitled "Lisa's Big Boobs" or whatever, which is what attracted the husband to the site to start with.

So to protect his privacy and security (from his wife, secretary, bookkeeper, whoever) the purveyor of all that filth tells the man, "you don't have to be embarrassed about what you did/saw/thought about doing ... just look for an entry on your credit card from 'Acme Universal Corporation', (which is d/b/a Lisa's Big Boobs.)" PAT]