I never use one and hear they are more subject to fraud as you might not recover it as with a credit card.
I only use one credit card, Cabela's, and get 1% back in store purchases. Pay it off at the end of the month so it does not cost anything.
because I find walking a few feet and maybe waiting in line a few minutes twice a month to be more convenient compared to worrying about all this.
m
I'll wager that either you don't drive near as much as I do or that you get much better gas mileage. ;-)
P.S. I don't worry about all this.
Use a credit card instead. "Debit cards" do not have the consumer fraud protection that credit cards do.
The ones I have, I often over pay, so that I am spending my own money and not borrowing it from someone else. That is when I am forced to use a credit card, as in Amazon.com.
I am admiring your wording. You make a good point.
Try Maverik's. They move the line pretty fast and open up several registers if needed. Plus they hire folks that give a damn about their customers.
I have several cards and use the one that gives the most back. Lowes card is 5 % on everything. Amazon card gives you $ 50 ( I think) just to get their card and several percent off at drug stores and some other places. I buy a lot off ebay, so have a Paypal card that gives more than 1% off ebay and gas. Some other cards will give you some money just to get their card and charge so much in the first month or two.
I have to look at a list in my wallet every time I shop to see which one gives the best 'rebate'. Then there are things like Walmart that I can scan the bar code from the cash register and if there are other stores that have the same item on sell for less they credit that to me.
I probably save over $ 500 per year by doing all that. To pay them off I get on the computer and do a transfer from my bank every month. That $
500 is tax free, so more like getting 700 to 800 bucks back.
My wife is like that and has a bunch of cards. She won't bank on line (she does all the banking) and won't use her cards at the gas station. To me, it is a lot of extra work. She also has reward cards from several places and tells me to make sure she gets the credit when I buy there. I don't like carrying all this crap around and fortunately can just give my phone number to get credit.
Might mention that a few weeks ago she found a restaurant gift card for $25 that someone probably lost out of their overloaded wallet or purse. Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where George could not close his wallet it was so full.
You know, this really has nothing to do with debit cards vs. credit cards. (Yes, I know all the differences and I use one vs. the other depending on the situation.)
This whole back and forth started when mako said "that's why I prefer the convenience of cash". The convenience of a credit card or debit card vs. *cash*. That's the comparison we're making here.
If we limit the discussion to that, I'd have a hard time being convinced that cash is more convenient in any situation where both a card and a cash option exists.
Just as an aside, you can trust me when I say that I know quite a lot about fraud. My daughter has been a victim of identity theft. Cell phone accounts have been opened in her name and cable TV accounts have been been opened in her name. Trust me, you learn an awful lot while trying to fix those types of issues.
In one case we never got a bill and only found out about the theft when her credit report showed that her "Comcast Detroit" account had been sent to a collection agency. She lives no where near Michigan. It was up to her to prove that she did not live at the address of the account at the time of the theft. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find out when and where the theft occurred when you never got a bill, never got a letter from a collection agency, never got anything expect an email from Credit Karma about a change in your credit report - "One account has been sent to a collection agency." When you call Comcast they want an account number or phone number or address for the account - none of which you have - before they will give you any information. The irony here is palatable. They won't share any information in order to protect their customers against fraud when it was technically one of their own customers that committed the fraud.
She ended up finding out the name of the collection agency and talking them into giving her *something* that she could use to get Comcast to release the information she needed to prove her own innocence. How do you provide proof that you didn't live at a certain address at a certain time if the company that wants the proof won't tell you what you need to know in order to fulfill their request? It was maddening.
All restaurant gift cards have GPS chips in them now. If she tries to use it to pay her food bill, the Gastro Squad will swoop in and demand that she return the food that she just consumed.
T posted for all of us...
WE had a case of skimming here and what caught them is what T quoted.
Extremely snipped
I use credit cards for everything. I have been hacked twice-both under Discover card-years ago.
I can look up all transactions daily if I wish. I don't have to worry about having much cash on me. In fact my wife was pick pocketed and they only stole the cash and left the cards in the wallet on the ground. I like the buyers security as in theft reimbursement and charge back in cast of defective items that a seller refuses to abide by my terms.
Gotta go, was going to post more.
My debit card is a Master Card issue and they are very explicit that it has the same protection as their credit cards. By law they do not have to but if they want it used they have to meet the competition.
I remember that episode and often feel like that. I usually leave the store cards at home unless I plan on shopping there. Such as Lowes. I may go there once a month so leave that card in a pile with some other ones. Just have to remember which cards to take with me. If I do forget a certain card I just use one of the normal credit cards and still get my 1 % instead of 3 to 5 %.
One of the food stores has a card that you get some money off some of the items if they scan the card. Often the register operators will have a card handy that they will scan if you do not have one. Could be a friends or theirs or evne their card so they get credit for the purchase. I don't know or care if I get the money off . Lots of places will take the phone number around here too.
While I don't carry any balances and never have on the credit cards, I read many years ago that Sears (when they were big) made alot more profit off the credit cards than they did on the actual sales. I just don'tunderstnd why so many carry large ballances on the cards when the interest rate is 18 % to 25 %. They must be like a fellow at work, never count on what something costs or how long to pay it off, just looking for a low monthly payment.
The credit union I use has a dedicated fraud team that takes care of this crap for $600 typically.
What actually happened was that my wife called the restaurant chain. She would have given it back if they knew the owner which they didn't. All they knew was that there was $25 on it. We ended up with a mostly free meal.
Might mention that a Sears clerk stole my wife's id. My wife had gone there and forgotten her Sears credit card and clerk asked her SSN and she got the purchase. Next day Sears called her and asked if she were an African American and had just purchased a color TV and a $500 gift certificate on her Sears card. Wife was upset and even called police. The clerk had quit her job that day. We tore up Sears card.
Lot of people, maybe most, live on the float. One son had worked at a credit card bank and another for a brief period at a finance company and both said we would be surprised if they gave the names of individuals that we knew. Our 3 sons are like us and pay off all cards at the end of the month.
Even if your credit union had absolutely no connection to the incident?
Do you mean that they offer this service, a la carte, to their members?
You have an identify theft issue - unrelated to any business you do with them - and you pay them $600 to fix it?
My bank offers that as well. If/when you are the victim of identity theft, you take them all supporting documentation of the identity theft, pay them a fee and the bank cleans it up for you.
I'll ask the same question to you that I asked of Neil:
Will they do this even if they are not in any way connected to the "theft"?
Let's call the bank "My_S&L"
In other words, someone opens a cell phone account in your name. This has nothing to do with My_S&L. No My_S&L bank accounts have been accessed, no My_S&L credit credit card was used to pay the bill, etc. No connection to My_S&L at all.
Will they still clean it up for you?
(I'll save my other questions until I see the answer to that one.)
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