Start › The decisions
The decisions
Twenty pages. Each lays out the options with what they gain and cost, then says what usually tips it. Several cover choices readers do not currently know they are making.
The four that carry the most weight
| Decision | Why it matters more than the rest |
|---|---|
| Verify every time | It is the only check that answers whether you are where you think you are, and it decays quietly once things have gone well for a while. |
| Leave a balance | The most frequent loss in this whole subject, with no attacker involved at all. |
| Escrow or direct | The one choice on this site with no recovery mechanism behind the wrong answer. |
| Act now or later | Urgency is what every manipulation needs, so this decision sits underneath most of the others. |
All twenty, grouped
| Theme | Pages |
|---|---|
| Getting in | Which address, verify every time, bookmark or list, wait or switch |
| Money | How much to fund, leave a balance, escrow or direct, order size |
| Who you deal with | Which vendor, when to dispute, leave feedback, answer or ignore |
| Who you are | Reuse an identity, one key or several, help somebody |
| Your setup | Phone or computer, a separate system |
| Whether to at all | Switch or stay, keep going or stop, act now or later |
On the highlighted optionWhere a page marks one option as the usual answer, that is a default rather than a rule. The point of laying out the cost is that you can tell when your situation is the exception.