[wallywax]

I can just imagine the HN article when someone tries to delete his Facebook account because he disagrees with some new feature, and they won't do it for 48 hours. I've been on the receiving end of "DELETE MY ACCOUNT!!!1!!1" requests, and I know those people wouldn't respond well to "wait two days or pay up."

[saalweachter]

Can you delete your Facebook account instantly? When I deleted mine, it went into limbo for like two weeks before being permanently deleted. (I don't remember if there was no option for instant-delete, or if I just didn't care to.)

[kmm]

Facebook doesn't even allow you to delete your account. If a site were to remove the account from the public view, but delay the actual deleting by a few days (I'd prefer a week or more actually), you wouldn't notice the difference unless you were malicious. But I don't understand what the money is for actually.

[columbo]

> I don't understand what the money is for actually.

I was thinking about remote storage and devices. For example, a backpack is stolen with your phone/tablet/laptop and you need to issue a wipe to it NOW before they are compromised.

Requiring a credit card at least leaves a paper trail of some sort.