Your credit card is stolen. You place a phone call to the number provided in your tourist guide or in the local daily press. You provide your details and you cancel your card. You block it. In a few minutes, it should be transferred to the stop-list available to the authorization centres worldwide. From that moment on, no thief will be able to fraudulently use your card. You can sigh in relief. The danger is …showed first 75 words of 1145 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1145 total…card is almost always subject to credit history and to an approval process in Europe. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about credit card issuers in the USA. This lackadaisical vigilance, the monpolistic practices of certain credit card companies, the Kafkaesque procedures and the arbitrariness of the results - put both merchants and credit card holders at risk. Whatever it is that credit card companies provide - it is not guaranteed payment or secure refunds.