From: Hallam-Baker <hallam@ai.mit.edu>
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 13:06:15 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: VISA Travel Money
In-Reply-To: <4tmr8j$lrg@life.ai.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <3202AC0F.41C6@ai.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Timothy C. May wrote:

> I'm also skeptical of these "VISA Travel Money" cards. That is, they don't
> seem to be too useful for anything.

They are usefull for the one purpose for which they are designed. One
can go off to a foreign country and obtain cash as required without
having to pay often usurous fees from bureaux de change. Just because
you are supposed to be able to use travel cheques as cash does not mean
that you really can.

> After all, cash works well. (It's rarely stolen, in my experience, or at
> least this is not a major concern. Traveller's checks work well, and can be
> "cashed" into the local currency. ATM machines fill the same function these
> "VISA Travel Money" cards apparently do; at least when I was in Europe the
> last time this is what I used, and my French francs were as untraceable as
> could be.
>
> As I see it, yet another marketing solution looking for a problem.

Its not a major VISA product but it is reasonably usefull. Its more convenient
to carry a card than cash. If one gets mugged or looses the card there
is a way of recovering the cash (sometimes). I don't think that there would
be much use for such cards in the tourist belt but you might well want to
have one if you were going on a trip to the hinterlands of a country.

For most people VISA travel cheques or a cash advance is likely to be
more usefull. 
 
> A real step would be a true privacy card, a card issued in a jurisdiction
> unfriendly to U.S. investigators and offering various transaction-blinding
> options. I have to wonder what pressures have been put on the major credit
> card companies...

See the Stored Value Card work that VISA have been working on, or MONDEX.
MONDEX has almost every feature you would want from anonymous cash except 
you can't prove its anonymous. You can do purse to purse transfers 
however.

Its a different level of privacy to that of e-cash. e-cash provides
only purchaser unlinkability and its an online scheme. MONDEX makes
it possible to trace certain withdrawal and deposit patterns of a user
but little else. 


		Phill