Used to be everywhere I went with my debit card they'd tell me to input the pin. Somewhere along the way, this changed, and the vast majority of places don't bother. I think people got fed up with it.

So far the only place around where I live that you can use your debit card without even signing for something is at 7/11 and once I realized that was the case I've made a point of not ever using the card there again. Way too open to abuse.

And yes, the whole "lets nickel and dime you to death" for using debit cards as DEBIT cards vs CREDIT cards is asinine when it all comes from the same account and using it as a credit card doesn't incur the 10 cent surcharge.

The difference is when the credit/debit card company itself is charging fees; that's why sometimes they (the vendors) have different rates for debit vs. credit. It's all kind of silly and unfortunate. :thinking:

Well that's what I was getting at. The bank itself charging fees for using it as a debit, but doing nothing when using it as a credit. Same card. Same account. Same vendor. One method loses you a dime, the other doesn't.

Vendors who charge for using the machine and punching in a pin code should be boycotted especially when they also don't charge you for running it as a credit and having to sign for it instead.

I use a credit union that doesn't charge a surcharge for using debit cards nor do they charge for writing checks and they refund any ATM charges incurred for using an ATM that is not theirs. Credit unions are a good way to go to avoid most of that nickle and dime crap that the big banks seem to love so much. My particular credit union is also insured by the FDIC. Just a warning though, some credit unions are not insured, I don't think they are required to be by law.

Wow, your bank is pretty cool. Mine charges two whole damn dollars if I use the debit feature (though the first five in a month are free! woooohooo).

Uhh…My bank charges me zero either way, and gives cash rebates for using credit (but again, no penalty for using debit). I also get reimbursed any ATM transaction fees I may incur :)

Late response to Shasharak -

If I pulled out a handful of change to pay for something around here in the city I would probably get beat in the parking lot for making somebody wait for me to count it out. :P

That's generally why I don't pay with change CB. Well, I'm not likely to get beat down in the parking lot but I am conscious of making of people in line wait while I fumble through my wallet counting out change. It's much quicker to count out change from a till than a wallet me thinks.

I live in the hood. Any inconvenience I can inflict is a bonus, so I tend to pay in correct change when I can :grinning:

Actually that was the old bank. The one that failed. They got what they deserved IMO :)

The new bank that took over doesn't do that sort of thing but I've long since gotten into the habit of using it as a credit card everywhere I go with it.

And wow. $2 is harshness. You need to find a new bank.

wow.

i dont pay any monthly fees as long as i stick to electronic transactions (internet banking, atms).

several debit cards for no fees ever..

Well, that would indeed be inconsiderate. What a considerate person would do is add up all of his purchases, work out what he is going to pay, and have the exact amount ready in hand before he reaches the checkout. He can then hand it over, pick up his purchase and leave before the person at the checkout has even had a chance to open up the cash register. (You might need to wait for your receipt, I suppose). If you do that then paying in change actually means less waiting for everyone in the queue behind you.


The credit/debit card thing people are talking about seems very weird to me as well. :smile: In Britain there are three differences between debit and credit cards:

1) In theory, if someone makes a fraudulent charge to your debit card, the bank is not legally obliged to refund you, whereas they have to if there's a fraudulent charge to a credit card. In practice, however, the banks do actually cover fraudulent charges to debit cards, so this distinction doesn't matter.

2) With a debit card the money leaves your bank account immediately. With a credit card you are sent a bill at the end of the month which, if you're sensible, you pay in full. (You have the option not to, but the interest rate you get charged if you don't is obscene).

3) With a credit card the retailer has to pay 2% of the purchase price in fees to the card issuer. (I can never remember if it's the bank or Visa/Mastercard that gets this). Debit cards are free to the retailer. Some retailers (particularly on-line) therefore charge extra for credit card transactions, but not for debit cards. (Brick-and-mortar shops never seem to do this, though).

You still have to wait for the clerk to count it. Having been a cashier once myself, no cashier that values their job would accept payment without counting it back first – unless it was something trivially simple to verify as correct, ie, a single $1 bill, quarter, etc.

Yeah, but if the clerk were giving you change, you'd have to wait for him to count that too, so it doesn't take any extra time, does it? :smile:

The till has different sections for each coin, so I imagine it would be quite a bit faster to count out change than to count the money you're putting in (particularly if you have to count it all before you start putting it into the till).

To be really considerate, you should make sure your purchases add up to an exact figure, so that no coins need to change hands :cool:

Thankfully, at least here in California, it's been made law that the banks can't hold you hostage for fraudulent charges regardless of whether they were made by debit or credit.



This is pretty much the same thing here. There might be a day's lag or so between posting the debit and it actually going through, but for all practical purposes it's immediate. Not like the good old days when people wrote paper checks and you could float for several days on what should be an overdraft. :)



As far as I am aware it's illegal here for retailers to impose surcharges for using credit cards. So they gouge the debit card users instead.

We'd have to mentally calculate and add in the sales tax here, and there's about 4 different rates used within about 15 miles of where I live.

Yes. Sales tax. The bane. There's 5 different rates all within 20 miles of where I live. Good luck remembering which is which :)

Hmm another odd difference with my bank, using credit vs debit has absolutely no difference for my bank, if you use credit it's automatically taken from your account immediately, same with debit.

As for the sales tax differences within short distances… that's totally weird to me. I live in Texas and we have 8.25% sales tax throughout the state. I live on the east side of the state but I'm still more than an hour away from the nearest bordering state (Louisiana).

If you sort the change for the clerk so that all the coins of each type are together, I don't think there'd be much difference.