Ameri-centric web forms: credit card forms, etc

Dear all,

Living in the USA for most of my 38 years did not prepare me for living in a
foreign country such as Ireland. Although some of my financial institutions
are based in the States, some of my financials have been set up in Ireland.

However, most-US based credit-card submission web forms only allow for
submission of certain criteria: States.

Doing business on the web should allow for foreign customers. US-based
"States" should NOT be a mandatory field in such web forms when it is clear
a customer who lives in a foreign country.

As an example, may I point out www.efax.com.  On its upgrade-to-sign-up
page, the user is allowed to select a local number in Dublin, Ireland; and
the foreign user is even allowed to select the foreign country he is in - in
my case, the Republic of  Ireland. I also input all of the correct
credit-card data. However, the field "state", while required, is limited to
all territories and states on the North American continent - but not that of
Ireland or Mexico, for that matter.

Even if were to select "Alabama", it is not valid, for there is no Alabama
in Ireland. There are no ZIP Codes in Ireland, either.

There must be a standard to the design of web-based credit card submission
forms so that those forms no longer have the limiting "drop-down" lists of
*only* US states.

Intelligent mapping sites such as www.viamichelin.com now distinguish
between "Limerick, Ireland" and "Limerick, Maine, US". It is therefore
possible to discern correct mailing address *without* reliance upon mere
US-based  information.

This will allow for true international trade without fraud. Only one's
credit-card company need know for sure - which is why the "Verified-by-VISA"
codes can be so important. There are other safeguards that can be
incorporated into web-based forms that no longer need rely on ZIP Codes as a
control.

Sincerely,

Chris Skurkey
Chris Skurkey
Dingle
Co. Kerry
Ireland

Received on Sunday, 19 September 2004 23:16:00 UTC