| Because there's no such thing as a free lunch. Sure, the bank/CC company will take responsibility for fraudulent charges. In return, they: 1. Randomly cancel your cards and mail you new ones to limit their risk. (No explanation other than 'security') 2. Refuse to let you use your cards to deposit on gambling sites (which are legal in Canada). They also charge extra fees for 'cash-like' transactions on things like forex sites. 3. Reject large purchases that are 'out of the ordinary' making you look like a jackass. This one happened to my dad while he was booking flights. 4. Skim 2-3% or more of each transaction. 5. Maintain onerous requirements for merchants. Square has helped a lot with this in the first world but in the rest of the world they don't even bother taking electronic payments because it's such a hassle to get approved, lease the machines, maintain a security deposit, etc. Sometimes it makes more sense to just take the risk of getting scammed than deal with all of the above. |