Debit cards...how do I hate thee?

[Amalthea]

Okay, I don't hate debit cards. WAY better than writing a check or hauling butt to the ATM. I hate SCs with debit cards. Our pin pad device isn't active until I've rung everything up and hit the credit button on my register. Until then, you can swipe your card a gazillion times and its not gonna care. So people will merrily swipe away 5 or 6 times if I don't tell them "That won't be on until I'm finished." Then they complain about how each one is different. Yeah, I know they are, but from my experience, if you can swipe your card any time, the little screen says "Swipe Card at Any Time" or "Please Swipe Card Now", or something similar. If it doesn't, then you should wait until it DOES tell you to. Simple as that. Then, of course, they can't figure out which way the card goes in. I understand with the ones where you hold the card vertically, I have a hard time telling which way the stripe side is supposed to be on most of those. But ours has you hold the card vertically, and has a very distinct picture that says "Card Name" with a bunch of numbers underneath, so you know card name up, stripe down. But no one sees it. Even when I point it out to them. Our system doesn't ask you if you want Debit or Credit. Once you swipe the card, it determines whether or not it can have a PIN assigned. If so, it asks for one. If not, it runs it as credit. To run a debit card as credit, either the customer has to push the red cancel button, or I hit a button on my register. So I try to always ask people "debit or credit" since it's not obvious how to run debit as credit. But if I don't, it never fails that the SC will get all huffy and offended that they are asked for a PIN, and cry "This is a CREDIT card!", even though I can see the card and it says "check card" on it twice over and "debit" once. Okay, that's fine that you want it run as credit, but it IS a debit card.

My favorite was this older gentleman who came in with a card I see every day, it's the debit card from one of the two major banks here. So I ask Debit or Credit, he replies debit. So I let him swipe his card, wait for him to enter his PIN (eyes averted, of course, people get so antsy that you'll see their PIN and somehow track them down, steal their debit card, and use all their money) He proclaims there is no PIN, in kind of an incredulous tone. So I run it as credit. Then, thinking maybe this is the old guy's first debit card, I explain if he doesn't have or want to use his PIN, he should ask to have it run as credit.
"You guys just need to update your technology," he tells me.
"I'm sorry?"
"Everywhere else I go just has me sign for it."
I try to explain that we just had our system updated, that's why we now have the PIN pads and give them the option to use a PIN. But he insists that we are severely behind the times, and need to get our systems updated again. So I just smile and nod, like I should have done in the first place.

Another thing I don't understand about debit cards. Now that it's back-to-school time, we occasionally get the kid who comes in with mom's debit card to buy school books with. Of course he/she doesn't have mom's PIN, so we want to run it as credit. But for credit we ask for ID, and if the name on the card is not your name, we won't accept it. Even if it's the same last name. (Yes, I know you say it's your "husband's" card. Could be true, could be an EX-husband, could be a coincidence that your last names are the same. If it is your husband's card, why don't you take the time to get a card with your very own name on it? They can do that, ya know.) Anyway, the kid calls mom, mom's upset we won't take it. I've got an idea, brainiac mom. You want your kid to use your debit card, give him the PIN. I'd let a monkey use a debit card if he knows the PIN. I'll assume he's allowed to access the funds if he knows the PIN. What, you don't want him to know your PIN? But you'll send him off, willy nilly, with your credit card? You don't trust him? Like there's a difference between him stealing your card when he knows the PIN and him stealing your card when he knows stores will just let him use it with no problem.

P.S. No, we won't let him use your check either, even if it's already all filled out. We check ID for those, too. I have a novel idea. It's called CASH, now accepted everywhere school supplies are sold.

[Jester]

There is another solution to this, actually, one my mother did for me when I started college (way back in 1988) and one I know my friend has done for my nieces.

Get them credit cards with their name on it that are attached to your account. In my case, it was for clothes only. If I bought something other than clothes, or if I bought an exorbitant amount of clothes, I would have to answer to Mom. Now, with my friend, if she doesn't trust her kids that week, she merely takes the card from them, same as she would do if it were her card that they had. That way you don't have to give out your PIN number to your kids--a dicey proposition quite often--you can still control, to an extent, what they buy on your dime, and they have the ability to shop without you having to be there every time.

Amazing what modern technology can do for parents who aren't ass-numbingly lazy.

[Dreamstalker]

That's what my mom did for me recently. It's for emergencies, "nice" clothes, or computer parts if she OKs an upgrade for her machine. Anything else I have to either clear with her or pay back when I can (for the latter it's like my CC without the late fees).

[Mark Healey]

I just wish the banks would consider us retailers when talking to customers and agree on their terminology. Here is how I understand things to be.

ATM: Works through one or more atm dedicated networks to remove money from your account.

CREDIT: Has a dedicated network so you can borrow money to buy goods/services.

DEBIT: Works through the credit card network to remove money from your checking acount, but the interface is the same as a credit card.

Some banks insist on calling their debit cards ATM cards and vice versa. I hate that.

[Worker-Intellectual]

I never use my debit card unless I forgot to go to the bank to get cash (which actually happens quite often). Everyone accepts cash, even drug dealers and Tim Hortons (I heard from one of my friends who worked there that people will demand to use their debit card, even though the sign says sorry, no debit so we can keep up our speed of service). And I laugh at all my coworkers for putting chocolate bars and drinks and such on debit.

Anyways, back to the point at hand, how many times do we see people try to swipe it the wrong way and then complain that everywhere else it's different (well, in EE you can swipe it upside down and diagonally if you want and it will still work) and it's too complicated and "they" should get together and standardize them all. Perhaps it is too complicated if your IQ is 48, but it took me all of one second to figure it out (although perhaps as the designated smart guy at my place of work, I am not representative of the general population).

[Pagan]

Anyways, back to the point at hand, how many times do we see people try to swipe it the wrong way and then complain that everywhere else it's different and it's too complicated and "they" should get together and standardize them all. Perhaps it is too complicated if your IQ is 48,

Actually, it would be nice if they all did look alike. It's not a matter of IQ so much as forgetting which way to swipe at which store. The Super Wal-Mart here has two different pinpads in it's own store!

There's one thing we do at Hasting's that other places are doing as well, and I think it's just inviting CC fraud. If it's under $25, we don't even get a signature! Can you imagine the damage someone could do, even at only $25 at a time?

[AFpheonix]

Heck, we have different pin pads back in the pharmacy. For some reason, they gave us pretty digital ones, and the rest of the store still has the dumpy old ones. Ours seem to need rebooting more often, though, and they crap out if the person swipes the nanosecond I sign into the till.


Anyhoo, there's really only 2 ways a card can be swiped through a track, so if it doesn't work one way, then it'll go the other way. The ones like Target has where it sucks the card up inside could be a little dicier, if you can't be bothered to match your card up to the picture on the display.

Even if they are all different, they are all fundamentally the same, most, if not all, have pretty darn good directions to follow on the readout.

[Primer]

I guess I must be one of the last people on earth that carries cash. I'll use a credit card for expenses that must be tracked, such as at the doctors, auto repair, or veterinarian, but the grocery stores and gas stations get cash (we have a gas station out here in the boonies that gives a 5 cent/gallon discount for cash). I'll use the debit card at the ATM at work to get the cash, but otherwise I almost never swipe my own card anywhere.

I hope people forgive me when I take a moment to read the instructions and figure out what I need to do to make it work correctly.

[Broomjockey]

I hope people forgive me when I take a moment to read the instructions and figure out what I need to do to make it work correctly.

That's always okay.
The problem is the people who swipe their card six times, still don't get it right, you swipe it for them, then they push the wrong account button, cancel, try and swipe their own card again, push the wrong account again, cancel, try and swipe their own card again, push the right account but the wrong pin number, try and swipe their own card, push the right account but the wrong pin number again, then finally get every thing right this time through.

And with Bob as my witless, I've seen this happen more than once.

[Phone Jockey]

I had a guy call once to make a payment on his car insurance with his ATM card. He explained that there was no VISA/MC logo on it & it only was used to pull $$ from his bank machine. Also, he advised me, there was no $$ in his account at that time.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I have a debit card that also works as an ATM card, but I only use it at the ATM.

I still write checks, even though some people here think they are a pain. I do this because I've heard of banks debiting a person's account more than once when they use their debit card to buy something. Then they have to fight with the bank to get that money put back in their account. At least with a paper check, you don't have to worry about that happening.

[Crosshair]

At least with a paper check, you don't have to worry about that happening.

Yes you do. Clerk mistyped one of my dads checks once and the check bounced a mile high back when I was little. Dad was not happy. Checks can be "washed" and used to make fraudulent purchases. If you have to fight to get your money back with a Debit Card you will have to fight to get you money back with a check.

My store does thousands of transactions every day (Just like most of the other stores people from this site work at.) and I talk to one of the ladies that works in the cash office every day. Most of our problems come from check users. The only real way what you describe could happen is if you where in a restaraunt and gave the clerk your card and they didn't know how to run the machine and ran your card twice. Checks are much less secure than debit/credit cards.

[pbmods]

I really don't understand what the problem is. I've never met a PINpad device I couldn't figure out in three seconds. However, I guess I suffer from the following impediments:

- If something doesn't work, I try to do it a DIFFERENT way than the way that didn't work!
- I accept that ALL PINPAD DEVICES ARE MADE DIFFERENTLY and deal with that fact so that I can get on with my life.
- If I can't figure it out, I'll POLITELY ask the cashier for HELP (only happened once 'cause the cashier was supposed to press credit on her terminal).

I guess this is why nobody posts about me on this site

[batmoody]

I really don't understand what the problem is. I've never met a PINpad device I couldn't figure out in three seconds. However, I guess I suffer from the following impediments:

- If something doesn't work, I try to do it a DIFFERENT way than the way that didn't work!
- I accept that ALL PINPAD DEVICES ARE MADE DIFFERENTLY and deal with that fact so that I can get on with my life.
- If I can't figure it out, I'll POLITELY ask the cashier for HELP

Its also just as simple as following directions. The machines tell you what to do. The problem is getting customers to learn to read.....
There should never be any confusion about which way to swipe either. You always swipe with the magnetic strip facing the thickest part of the machine....you know...where the reader mechanism would be. Oh wait, but then they would have to use their brain too.....
hmmmmm......
Maybe we are expecting to much.