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> I've never seen it in Asia in 15 years Direct debit is very common in Japan and South Korea, although credit cards are also used for recurring payments. My p
by kijin 12y ago
> I've never seen it in Asia in 15 years
Direct debit is very common in Japan and South Korea, although credit cards are also used for recurring payments. My phone bill is paid via direct debit. My parents' utility bill is paid via direct debit. A client of mine collects membership fees via direct debit.
It's ridiculously easy to set up. It's also easy for fraudsters to abuse. But then again, a fraudster would need to register his business with the appropriate authorities in order to start making debits, and many payment processors require additional details such as the account holder's date of birth. So nobody seems to be particularly worried. People here hand out their bank account #'s like they hand out business cards. A lot of small businesses even have their bank account #'s posted online. Heck, even I have my bank account # posted online, to collect donations for an open-source project.
So, direct debit is everywhere, fraud is everywhere as well, but for some reason, Americans seem to be the only ones who freak out when someone else figures out their bank account #.
- contingencies 12y agoInteresting. I've never lived in Japan/South Korea, but in mainland China (1.4 billion people) as far as I can tell it doesn't exist. Never seen in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam either. I'd be surprised if it exists in India. Probably does in SG/HK, but who'd live there? :) (PS. Typical HN this thread .. make a valid comment, get called out on a tangent and voted down to obscurity. At least we're all learning something ;)
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- _delirium 12y agoOne thing a few countries do (at least Denmark, not sure where else) to cut out most instances of direct-debit fraud is requiring that the first debit from a new merchant is approved by the account owner. This might not technically be a direct debit, though, but is the electronic adaptation of the old "giro" system to function mostly through the direct-debit machinery. When a merchant wants to set up a new client's payments, they send a "giro" request, which is basically a bill with some codes. The client could pay this in the old-fashioned way by taking it to a post office and paying it there in cash; the post office then transfers the payment to the merchant. But what most people do nowadays is log into their online banking, enter the giro #, and say they want to pay it with direct debit. That authorizes all subsequent bills in the same series (i.e. for the same product or recurring subscription) to get direct-debited automatically. But merchants can't normally just pull directly without this initial authorization.