[bumholio]

The problem with this approach, and the related proposals like 3D Secure and Bitcoin, is precisely that it puts a low ceiling on what the site is allowed to charge to exactly what the customer is willing to spend on porn. The bread and butter of porn and most other internet subscription models is to get hold of the consumer credit card data and then setup a long run recurring payment stream, on the expectation that while most people will cancel it, a profitable minority will forget or enjoy and pay for the service further.

If just 25% of the customers let the subscription run for an average of 1 additional year, you will net 4x more money compared to a site that needs to renew the purchase every month, with zero customer acquisition costs and zero marginal costs for the provider - the content and platform are a sunk cost and traffic charges are negligible. Only now you have 4x more money to produce the content and generally be more competitive, pushing out of the market those who don't adopt the same tricks.

This is what The New York Times and porn sites have in common, and that's why you will see similar dark patterns of making subscription hard to cancel. In the porn's case, it's a much steeper uphill battle to get the money from the customer and his bank (and his wife), so they are forever relegated to the high-chargeback bin and must internalize that into their business model. Which might explain some of the "breakage" the original author is observing.

[phkahler]

If there was a prepaid card that make these payments easy and even anonymous, I'd spend a lot more on the internet. I refuse to get into subscriptions. I pass on a lot of articles that I'd like to read. A prepaid card that not connected to my finances and widely usable? If drop a hundred on it today. How many people like me will it take to have this make sense?

[mcherm]

But such an anonymous prepaid card would ALSO be very useful for money laundering. Because of that, no regulated financial institution will provide such a product. We used to have some (like prepaid debit cards purchased in person with cash) but the few that existed have nearly all been eliminated (in the US).

I am sure that if someone were to propose using specially printed pieces of paper as a way of exchanging value that the government would prohibit it. The FBI would testify about "the financial system going dark", the banking regulators would complain about money laundering, and the whole scheme to invent "cash" would be denounced more vigorously than Bitcoin has been.

[phkahler]

But I can buy stuff in the real world with cash. What does it take to do the same electronically?

[scarface74]

All prepaid cards are anonymous. You pay for the card with cash.

[skykooler]

Last time I bought a prepaid card (I believe it was Visa), to register it I had to be looked up in the credit card database. As I did not have a credit card at the time (hence buying the prepaid card), I was not in the database, so they would not sell me the card.

[chatmasta]

What is “the credit card database?” What country is this? In the US we only have credit reports, which are tied to SSN. Do you mean you had to give your SSN to receive a prepaid card? That doesn’t seem right.

[skykooler]

Yes, this was in the US. And yes, I had to give SSN. As far as I understand this requirement was added sometime around 2011.

[scarface74]

I’ve never had to give a SSN when buying prepaid Visa cards as gifts. I’ve ofter given them to minors as gifts.

[mrguyorama]

I bought a prepaid visa after such time and had no requirement

[sincerely]

Where do you live?

[stevenicr]

I thought some were anonymous when paid with cash, however some of those require that they are activated using a web browser and they request additional info, some requiring physical address and SS that match some database in order to use them.

I have also seen some businesses refuse to take a prepaid cash card, some saying nothing,

and others saying that they can not process such a card as recurring billing is blocked by the issuer or something.

I think there is some distinction at the card kiosks re-loadable vs non-relaodable making a difference with some of these issues.

Of course using a loyalty card during purchase or using a debit card to buy one adds personal info into multiple databases I would assume.

[scarface74]

Now it makes sense. Some vendors may not take a prepaid card if they can’t verify that the card matches an address with the card. I would assume this would especially be the case for online merchants shipping physical goods.

In that case, you may have to provide an address on a website.

[mrweasel]

I don't think I understand the issue with using 3D Secure, or Verified by VISA. It's something customers are already accustom when shopping online. You're buying a high risk item, from the perspective of the sell, similarly to downloadable content, or high price electronics. Solution like 3D Secure seems ideal in this case.

Companies like Stripe could easily say: Yes, we do accept payments for adult sites, but 3D Secure will be enabled on all purchases. I don't think that would scare of more customer than bouncing them between multiple payment provides and seeing the their payment reject multiple times.

[bena]

The problem is the customer on that side. The adult entertainment industry would love to use standard billing methods.

But what happens is that the customer invariably screams "I was hacked" when the line item comes on the bill. Then the chargeback happens anyway. Sure, the merchant isn't held financially liable for it, but they are still noted as having that chargeback. And they'll still hit that high percentage of "fraudulent charges".

And that's the real problem. Nobody will touch them because it costs too much to do so.

[mrweasel]

That a rather valid point. In theory the card companies would turn around an say: "No, you where not hacked. 3D Secure is completely safe", but do they really want to bother with that kind of publicity? Most likely not.