DilemmaFollow

I'm addicted to my debit card. I like using it. I never carry cash.

The problem is that some of the small local businesses that I like to frequent (with my debit card) are having a hard time with the 'big bank' fees. The cost for them to provide debit/credit card service is becoming a hardship.

I don't see how small businesses can do business without taking electronic payment, but it seems more of them are - at least in my little retail sphere. I'm ok spending a certain amount before I'm allowed to use my card, but it seems the banks don't allow the retailers to discriminate like that.

By withholding my purchases because i don't have cash, I'm sort of giving-in to and tossing coins needlessly to the big-profit banks, at the expense of the mom&pop business that provides me life-sustaining caffeine, fresh local produce, and other little goodnesses.

But, I don't want to go back to dollars and cents.

I want to say the system is similar in the US but I can use my debit card as a credit card instead of a debit and the retailer has to pay any fees rather than the account holder (though my debit card is fee free). I think this is why some stores do not allow debit cards to be ran as credit cards.

Can't say I've ever run into a problem and I use my debit card pretty pretty exclusively.

The only time I've noticed it was back when I was in college. My bank uses Visa and my dad's uses MasterCard. For a while there (maybe still?) Walmart refused to accept MasterCard debit cards as credit cards because of some fee dispute between Walmart and MasterCard. You had to run your MasterCard debit card as a debit card.

The only time I ever use my debit as a debit is if I need cash back. Which is rare.

My dad told me that if you run it as a credit card you get certain protections from the credit card company on the transaction. Things like guaranteed warranties. I never bothered looking up if it was true or not. I just use it as a credit because most places don't require signing if it's under 25-75 dollars depending on the store. So it's just swipe and go.

Edited, Jun 24th 2014 12:06pm by TirithRR

Maybe Credit is one less step for the minimum wage slave working the counter and they don't care how much the gas station gets dinged versus getting you out the door without the whole "Enter your PIN" rigamarole.

In Canada debit and credit are completely separate, at least for me. Not sure if there are cards that do both at once like there are in the states.

It kind of hit me as odd when I stopped into this new place this morning and they had the cash machine right there inside the store. I didn't know if it was some trend of small shop owners to try and shift the burden of e-fees to the customer ...or what. I don't want to burden the shop owner, but I'd rather burden them than myself I guess.

Another little establishment i go to - yeah ok, another donut shop - but they're mainly hot dogs. They didn't take cards for the longest time, and FINALLY got the capability (via an ipad) to take cards. The counter girl seems to dig it.

Maybe i should break up with donuts.

I use a debit card at specific small businesses that I specifically want to support, but aside from that it's always a rewards credit card yeah.

Edited, Jun 24th 2014 3:47pm by Xsarus

My debit card has a higher cash back % for trivial purchases. Larger stuff, sure cc is better.

I still carry around a bit of cash. I usually take out $100 every pay check. That is "fun money." So things that are luxuries have to come out of that cash. Utility bills (cell phone), normal food and grocery purchases, etc, all go on the debit card (or for work related travel expenses, the AmEx.) Cash can roll over, and some has to be 'put back' before I even take it out (MMO fees.. *cough*) but I usually end up blowing it all on beers and chocolate.

Because of the convention over the weekend I have $2 of fun money left for the month. Fortunately I'm doing business expense travel at the moment so it doesn't count anyway.

There is a difference. I think I know what it is but I'm not 100% sure and I'm not going to research it because that's all I do all day and I'm tired. Sorry. But I do know that Enterprise Rent-A-Car will not accept my debit card without me providing a photo I.D. and two other forms of identification such as utility bills. It has to do with a debit card being the same as a check, which is a negotiable instrument, and a credit card being revolving credit. Maybe.

If your check bounces it's the retailer's problemSpoilerNo, a debit card is not actually a check, but it is used like a check because you don't have a line of credit, you can only use what is in your account. Unless you have overdraft checking which complicates things. That's what Enterprise has a problem with, they cannot have my bank set aside $500 of my credit limit against the amount I will owe when I return the car because my debit card is not a . . . credit card., but if your credit card bounces . . . well, it doesn't. It can't. If it goes through then you owe the bank. But not the retailer, he or she gets paid. Unless you exercise your option to cancel within . . . 72 hours (I think?). But that's a federal law protecting consumers so we all know it's bad and needs to be repealed because it's just another example of big brother sticking his nose into innocent and morally pure people's business and besides, Elizabeth Warren probably had something to do with that law even though it's been around forever so that proves it's bad. We need to just let the market take care of things. Like it did with Enron. Oh wait, bad example. Like it did with the Savings & Loan disaster in the '90s. Nope, another bad example. Oh, I know, like it did with the housing bubble we just went through that was caused by Clinton forcing banks to give mortgages to poor people. Yeah, that's the one.

Like I said, I'm not 100% sure about the why, but I am sure about there being a difference. cynyck is tired and going to sleep now . . . must stop rambling . . .

I couldn't get a debit card from my bank unless I qualified for a line of credit (it was really low, like... 100 dollars). I didn't need the overdraft protection to have the checking account, but I did need it before they would issue a debit card linked to it.

The rest of your post? Incoherent rambling about random companies with little to no information about actual differences between debit and credit cards...