Halifax & Pret A Manger love ID-theft [consumerist]
It being Friday in the bank that offers the largest rate for a balance
under £2,500, there was a huge queue in the Halifax, so I opted to pay
into one of their machines. I will never pay in a cheque this way again.
Fortunately, the cheque was drawn on Chelsea building society rather than
written by a real person to a real person. In keeping with current laws on
fraud & money laundering, it was made out to me exclusively (crossed), but
didn't have any dedicated account details on it. 'Fortunately', I say,
because a scan is made of the cheques paid in via machine & printed out
onto your receipt along with the amount you have told the machine it
credits.
So, lose your paying-in slip & you've lost not only your evidence of the
credit but probably also someone else's name & account details. Stupid.
*
As for Pret, if you're buying under £15 of goods (& unless you're shopping
for your whole office's lunch, in which case you likely have a tab anyway,
who spends that much in a Pret?) & elect to use your bank card, they timesave
by swiping the card with no verification. No signature, no PIN for your chip,
no request for photoID: Nothing. Why don't homeless people "eat the rich" by
nicking their bank cards and going on sub-£15 Pret sprees?
under £2,500, there was a huge queue in the Halifax, so I opted to pay
into one of their machines. I will never pay in a cheque this way again.
Fortunately, the cheque was drawn on Chelsea building society rather than
written by a real person to a real person. In keeping with current laws on
fraud & money laundering, it was made out to me exclusively (crossed), but
didn't have any dedicated account details on it. 'Fortunately', I say,
because a scan is made of the cheques paid in via machine & printed out
onto your receipt along with the amount you have told the machine it
credits.
So, lose your paying-in slip & you've lost not only your evidence of the
credit but probably also someone else's name & account details. Stupid.
*
As for Pret, if you're buying under £15 of goods (& unless you're shopping
for your whole office's lunch, in which case you likely have a tab anyway,
who spends that much in a Pret?) & elect to use your bank card, they timesave
by swiping the card with no verification. No signature, no PIN for your chip,
no request for photoID: Nothing. Why don't homeless people "eat the rich" by
nicking their bank cards and going on sub-£15 Pret sprees?