POLL: Credit or Debit Cards?

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Harbs: Well, my former bank used to impose a 0.75$ fee for each debit card transaction made. That's what I meant when I said they made people spend. If you use the card a lot in a month, it doesen't take much time to crank up one bill of service fees.

 

DoTW, I'm glad that is your former bank. If my bank tried to charge me for using my debit card, they will soon be seeing me transfer...

 

That sounds more like an incentive NOT to spend to me. If you spend less, you'll get less fees.

 

True enough, I suppose. But considering my paychecks were dropped in that account, I didn't had much choice. I also had a $100 daily withdrawal limit, as an added "bonus". That bank completly sucked. I'm with Royal Bank, now, and it's SO much better.

 

Dude, that bank sounds like a total scam! You need to join a credit union. They don't make a profit, so their fees are always lower, their interest rates for loans are usually lower, and you often have a better chance at being approved for a loan at a credit union.

I used to bank with Washington Mutual, but I closed that account when they charged me $25 for going over my limit after they charged me for a box of checks I didn't order. They refused to take the checks back and they didn't refund me the $25 or the cost of the checks.

Now I'm with University of Utah Credit Union (my fiancé used to work there), and have I have a savings and a loan though America First Credit Union. Life is a whole lot better now.

Banks in general are evil!

 

No they aren't. I'd like to see you buy a house and manage your money without a bank. Banks makes our lives unbeleivably easier. If you get bad service from your bank, you need to be more assertive about not putting up with it, or change banks.

 

Yes, yes, and yes. This is the most interesting thing I've seen going on in this thread. Evidently, it's much different in places other than the U.S. Here, they have a card reader at the register. You swipe your card, and then push either "debit" or "credit" on the touch screen. If you push debit, it asks for the pin, if it's credit, it requires you to sign your name on the screen. Since the machine that reads the credit card is the same as the one that reads the debit card, I have never seen an instance where you could use a debit card, but not use a credit card. It's both or neither.

 

In many stores it's the same reader. There are still a lot of stores I go into that have separate readers though.

 

I've never seen separate readers. I'm guessing that it's pretty much as Aldeth described it everywhere in the US.

 

You and Aldeth are probably more picky about the stores you go into than I am.... Let's just say there are some stores that don't update their electronics as often as others (I was just in a store with a manual register -- cash only).

 

Some shops in the US must be stuck in the 90's then. I can't remember the last shop I went in that didn't have a chip and pin system. Even the tiny little corner shops are with the times.

 

Yes, it's definitely the same machine for debit and credit cards but that still doesn't mean that everyone will accept a credit card or that everyone will accept one for very small transactions. It is much more expensive for a merchant to accept credit cards which is why some small shops will not take them. If they do not have a credit card arrangement with their bank, then they would not even be able to accept them, even if they have the machine. Also, the credit card fee might be uneconomical for them for small transactions, thus they may have a $10 limit on credit cards. I am surprised that some of you people use credit cards for $3 transactions, but that is the interesting part of this thread.

 

Actually, I don't know anyone who actually would charge something worth $3 - but then again, most people in the U.S. carry at least some amount of cash on their persons. If I went into Starbucks to purchase a $3 expresso, I'm likely paying in cash, because I can't remember the last time I didn't have at least $3 on me.

One major difference seems to me that debit cards gained a lot of popularity outside of the U.S. before catching on here. Debit cards started gaining popularity here only in the last 10 years or so, and from what you say HB, it's been that way a lot longer in NZ.

@Barmy - I think T2B is talking about small Ma and Pop's style stores in rural areas. Any type of technological upgrades wouldn't be cost effective to them, so it wouldn't surprise me that they only take cash.

 

I almost never carry cash because I don't need to and because it is a hassle, versus just carrying a couple of cards. And cash is even more of a hassle in the USA where you still (do you still) have an over abundance of $1 notes and almost no $2 notes, so your wallet ends up being stuffed full of $1s, not to mention all those super low value coins that you still keep in circulation. The other thing I don't like about cash is it is impossible to tell what it has been spent on. Because I only ever pay for things via credit card, debit card, or bank transfer, I can see every single transaction by looking at my account online. This makes it much easier for me to operate on a tight budget.

 

Um, I'm not sure what you mean. It is true that we use $1-bills, and while $2-bills exist they aren't that common in circulation. Currently in my wallet:

1 $20-bill
1 $10-bill
2 $5-bills
2 $1-bills

Oh, and I also have a quarter, a dime and a penny in my pocket from my change that I got from purchasing my lunch. So I don't think I have an over abundance of $1-bills. I think the main reason we still have $1-bills is that the U.S. doesn't have a $1-coin in common circulation, like most other countries.

I guess my point is that most Americans carry cash with them for small purchases. I usually bring my lunch from home, but we didn't have any leftovers today, so I purchased my lunch, and paid cash - it was $7.64. Generally speaking, for purchases under $10, most Americans will pay in cash.

 

What I mean is that in the USA you end up with more cash in your wallet for 2 reasons:
1) $2 notes are uncommon for some odd reason. So if you get $4 change, you end up with 4 notes instead of 2, which is just annoying.
2) Most other countries have phased out their low demonination currency, because it is such a pain. In NZ, we got rid of our 1c and 2c coins about 10 years ago and later on this year, we are getting rid of 5c coins.

 

I think that is a good idea--the penny is absolutely useless--I would rather have every amount rounded to the nearest .05.

 

just a few years ago(2-4 i think) there was a lawsuit brought against wal-mart and other large retailers by several banks.
they , the retailers , were trying to get out of taking credit cards and only accepting debit cards. the banks won in court.
the reason that retailers would rather take debit over credit is that there is a charge on every credit card transaction that you do (typically between 0.25% and 3%) .
the banks of course LOVE their fees

a related issue - i know that our county tax office only takes cash or check because of legislature passed that was worded that 100% of the payment had to go to the county.

 

For people like you or me, yeah, the penny is pretty useless. If you go to the store a buy a soda for $1.21, you probably would still buy it if you had to pay $1.25 instead. So in that regard, yeah, it's pretty useless. However, for businesses, a penny is far from useless, when you are talking about things that are bought in large volumes. In these cases, a penny makes a huge difference on the profit margins for a company. The best example I can think of is gas. Gas prices are calculated down to 1/10 of a cent. We don't even have a piece of currency worth 1/10 of a cent, but nonetheless you are charged for that fraction of a cent at the pump. And that's why I think that it is unlikely that we'll ever get rid of any units of currency in the immediate future.

Hmmm... I don't remember that. While this supports my thought that I can't remember ever seeing a store accept debit cards without accepting credit cards, I'm surprised that the courts rules against them. What I'm saying is: "Does a store have any obligation to accept any form of payment beyond cash?"