Regulation nation
Soon, you won’t be able to use your debit card for that cup of coffee or a soda. The fees make smaller purchases unprofitable. Congress decided fees were unfair or some such and felt the need to regulate them.
Also, fewer rewards are being offered and no more free checking. I have the Amazon Rewards Card. I get one point per dollar spent and three points per dollar spent at Amazon. And I can use those to buy stuff at Amazon or get other rewards.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:24 am
I am, sometimes, too lazy to take out cash and use my debit card at two places I know and they know me and I trust. But that’s it. Some Starbucks, never.
May 14th, 2012 at 11:55 am
My bank offers free checking; all I have to do is park $25K with them at less than 1% interest… They’re wasting a lot on postage sending me these offers.
May 14th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Using your debit card, you lose the fraud guaranties, and your giving someone direct access to your account. When you fight debit card fraud/ charges the money is already gone, not so w/ a credit card.
May 14th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Nice, so they’re making small purchases illegal with a card, meanwhile trying to phase out the penny!
I see where they’re going!
May 14th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
My bank offers free checking. but you have to use direct deposit. For the banks, free checking only makes sense if you are the type of customer they have to spend very little money (practically none) to provide an account.
I admit to missing the rewards points I used to get on my debit card. I would use the points to get gift cards at Cabelas (and use it to buy ammo).
May 14th, 2012 at 1:38 pm
Wait, first they tell us that if we consistently make small purchases with cash, we might be terrorists, and then they tell us we won’t be able to make small purchases unless we use cash?
May 14th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Dumb. Banks will increase monthly merchant fees.
They will get paid.
May 14th, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Phenicks: Every debit card I’ve ever seen and every one I can find now, offers 100% zero liability fraud protection.
Likewise, VISA promises “zero liability”* for Visa-branded debit cards.
(* Not including, as they say, ATM transactions and non-Visa-network PIN transactions, but almost all the real-world risk isn’t those, but some idiot using your number online.)
Federal Law limits you to $50 in liability if you report the loss within two days of discovering it, for a lost card – if it’s just the number being jacked, you are only liable if you don’t report the transactions as fraudulent within 60 days of getting the statement – I don’t know about you, but if someone’s used my card for anything substantial, I notice it a hell of a lot sooner than 60 days.
The annoyance is “losing” that money even temporarily, not that there’s no fraud recovery or protection; debit cards actually have pretty good protection, legally and practically.
And on the main topic, I am shocked, shocked to find that there are “unintended” consequences to such a law, despite those pushing it being told all about them in advance.
(I use quotes not because I think Frank really did intend for this to happen, but because he’s such a blinkered idiot that he just went on with it despite the warnings.)
May 14th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Look into Ally bank. It’s the old bailed-out GMAC, but without having any brick-and-morter overhead, they offer a boatload of services the others cannot touch.
All ATM fees refunded, once a month.
No minimum balance.
Free checking and debit service.
We have been with them for over 18 months now, no issues.
ally dot com
TXMarko AKA Texas Shooter.
May 14th, 2012 at 9:15 pm
USAA, FTW. đŸ˜€
May 14th, 2012 at 9:56 pm
The problem I have with using a debit card is that my money is at risk – if I use a credit card, it’s the bank’s money at risk. Since I happen to know someone who missed out on a semester of school that was on her annual performance agreement due to a tuition check bouncing because of debit fraud… (sure, the bank made her whole pretty quickly, but her classes were still full for the semester). I’d rather not have that happen on the day the mortgage payment is due, either.
(Also, side note, how hard is it to put aside the money to cover the credit card at end of month? One of the interviewees seemed to have a problem with that.)
May 15th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
All my mgm steel targets were bought with amazon reward points, 10 years and never paid a penny in interest…..
May 15th, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Congress should be painted a different color.