Remember the Target credit card data hack?
Consumers aren't giving their payment info (credit card numbers) when paying with bitcoin, so it's impossible for any new charges to pop up after payment has been made.
Not really a benefit. As a consumer you're not responsible for fraudulent charges on your credit card.
tell that to a guy trying to impress a girl at a romantic restaurant, trying to pay for the lobster and champagne and then being told by a smirking waiter that the card has been declined.... purely because a thief has maxed out his card.
other examples:
thief uses your credit card details to get a hire car, then kidnaps or runs someone down. you get a knock at the door by the cops and interrogated for hours trying to get the cops to believe that you were not the driver, where all information shows you were.
no for some less exadurated scenario's of why bitcoin is better:
1) your sex life is getting boring with your wife, but you wont cheat on her, instead you think that porn will solve the issue, you are worried that she will see the card statement, so you use bitcoin instead
2) you hate having to type in 16 digit credit card number, expiry date, and the 3 digit code on the signature strip. instead you want to just hold your camera phone up to your screen. press only 2 buttons, and get on with your day.
3) you have been the victim of card cloning/ ID theft / pickpockets. and you are tired of having to cancel your cards, and wait days for replacements.
4) your shop buys and sells gold but you start to think that with all the security window shutters at your shopfront, the time to lock up the valuable pieces on display, paying for security vans to take your days 'take' of fiat to the bank, along with the security camera's, alarms, safe's needed and all the building rental and retail costs. you start looking at a cheaper way to buy and sell rare items of value. hmm bitcoins are rare, and it can be traded in your underwear at home.
5)standing at starbucks you wait in queue to have your order taken. you tell them what you want then get your debit card out push it into their machine, type in your pin code and take a seat to wait for your drink. with bitcoin you can take your seat, use an app to make an order and pay for it,... without queuing!
number 5 is an example of the future. along with many others that are:
A) reading a tourist magazine, you see a QRcode that links to their website. you reserve your plane ticket on the website using the phone and press the pay with bitcoin, the price and destination public key ato-fills your phones bitcoin app, and you press send. (no need to type the 16 digits of credit card number, expiry, etc)
B) in the future imagine microsoft office PRODUCT KEY is actually a public key. to buy microsoft office (legitimately) to use after the time trial, you pay bitcoins into their PRODUCT/public key. the software checks blockchain.info and validates you have used a genuine paid for key
C) facebook/zynga get rid of their facebook credits, gets rid of the card processing facility and only show "50 more lives for 0.001btc" and a QR code.
remember bitcoin is in its infansy, many more future examples will come to mind. so think of it as a toddler, still learning to walk. and not an old guy dragging its feet
I have multiple credit cards, the odds all 3 of them are going to have an issue is slim to none.
LOL @ #1. Yeah, that's a benefit, you can discreetly pay for porno. But if you're trying to buy porn behind your wife's back you probably have bigger things to worry about then the payment method.
I use my credit card so frequently I know the 15 digits (amex), expiry, and 4 digit security code off the top of my head. Takes about 5 seconds to punch it in. And I can use it anytime anywhere without needing to see if the merchant is credible or not. For one, most scam sellers don't take credit cards (since they can be charged back), and if the merchant turns out to be a scam I get my money back with a phone call.
And all the things you mentioned, you can easily have a payment app that stores your credit card details, or other payment method details and lets you buy stuff with 1 click (in fact, amazon has exactly this for credit card purchases), and you get the benefit of knowing with 100% certainty your product will show up, or you get your money back.
Not really. I've lost my credit card, whoever found it put a bunch of bogus charges on it. Took 1 phone call to fix the problem, and amex sent me a new card that I received the next day.
If I lose my bitcoins then I'm just fucked.
