a dog-eared town

I hear stories like this and wonder, what exactly is the benefit to using credit cards and debit cards?

Hannaford yesterday announced that the breach involved all of its 165 stores in the Northeast, 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida and a smaller number of independent groceries that sell Hannaford products.

Of course that’s a rhetorical question. I know why people use credit and debit cards. It’s easier than cash. We, of course, use debit and credit cards but we watch things like a hawk. These sorts of incidents though, make me think that using more cash would be a good thing.

The thing that really bothers me about all these stolen credit card numbers, is the anti-consumer attitude by the entity that lost the credit cards.

“This was discovered last month and we’re finding out about it today,” said Gerald Little, president of the New Hampshire Bankers Association. “It’s very frustrating to the financial institutions that an entity like Hannaford can suffer this kind of breach and then let us know when it is convenient for them.”

Exactly.

It was the same situation with TJX Companies. They knew something was up, but they waited to do something. I’m guessing, though I have no real evidence, that they were trying to figure out how these breaches happened. I just don’t understand, you’ve got shoddy security practices and then you wait as long as possible to tell people about it.

I realize that these companies are worried about their legal liability, but what about doing the right thing for their customers? Is that really too much to ask from a company?