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Kindle conversion fees get you in trouble with Visa credit card computers—or another company’s?
October 27, 2009 | 6:47 am
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By David Rothman
That’s what happened to Jim Fallows, the Atlantic writer, who was shelling out 15-cent payments for PDF conversions.
The brain-dead credit card computers thought Jim was a card thief testing his account with small charges. Result? Visa unplugged his card until he protested (at least I assume he has).
Has this happened to you, with Visa or another company—or to anyone you know? Any measures you can take against it? I can just imagine the card conking out at the very moment you need it the most.
“I can’t be the first person to use a credit card for tiny Kindle charges,” Jim blogs. “Maybe a little coordination to be worked out here, guys? Another opportunity for the Nook?”
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Comments:
I can’t believe that these 15 cent charges don’t end up costing Amazon money. My understanding is that the credit card companies charge the merchants about 35 cents per transaction plus a few percent.
This is odd. I could have sworn that the Kindle charges wouldn’t be made until your account got to a certain amount – thought it was something like $3 or so.
Has something changed or is this a glitch?
Again Apple rule the roost. Due this problem with small transactions, such as someone purchasing 20 songs at 1.70 or so, Apple worked out that a lot of Credit Card companies would get alerts and freeze the card. So they just tally up your purchases and charge your card the next day, unless it is a larger transaction, they seem to go through immediately.