Debit card

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (November 2008)
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with ATM card. (Discuss)

Look up debit card in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A debit card (also known as a bank card or check card) is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. Functionally, it can be called an electronic check, as the funds are withdrawn directly from either the bank account (often referred to as a check card), or from the remaining balance on the card. In some cases, the cards are designed exclusively for use on the Internet, and so there is no physical card.[1][2]

The use of debit cards has become widespread in many countries and has overtaken the cheque, and in some instances cash transactions by volume. Like credit cards, debit cards are used widely for telephone and Internet purchases.

Debit cards can also allow for instant withdrawal of cash, acting as the ATM card for withdrawing cash and as a cheque guarantee card. Merchants can also offer "cashback"/"cashout" facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their purchase.

Credit or Debit?

For consumers, the difference between a "debit card" and a "credit card" is that the debit card deducts the balance from a deposit account, like a checking account, whereas the credit card allows the consumer to spend money on credit to the issuing bank. In other words, a debit card uses the money you have and a credit card uses the money you don't have.

In some countries: When a merchant asks "credit or debit?" the answer determines whether they will use a merchant account affiliated with one or more traditional credit card associations (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express) or an interbank network typically used for debit and ATM cards, like Plus, Pulse, Cirrus, or Maestro.

In other countries: When a merchant asks "credit or debit?" the answer determines whether the transaction will be handled as a credit transaction or as a debit transaction. In the former case, the merchant is more likely than in the latter case to have to pay a fee defined by fixed percentage to the merchant's bank. In both cases, the merchant may have to pay a fixed amount to the bank. In either case, the transaction will go through a major credit/debit network (such as Visa, MasterCard, Visa Electron or Maestro). In either case, the transaction may be conducted in either online or offline mode, although the card issuing bank may choose to block transactions made in offline mode. This is always the case with Visa Electron transactions, usually the case with Maestro transactions and rarely the case with Visa or MasterCard transactions.

In yet other countries: A merchant will only ask for "credit or debit?" if the card is a combined credit+debit card. If the payee chooses "credit", the credit balance will be debited the amount of the purchase; if the payee chooses "debit", the bank account balance will be debited the amount of the purchase.

This may be confusing because "debit cards" which are linked directly to a checking account are sometimes dual-purpose, so that they can be used seamlessly in place of a credit card, and can be charged by merchants using the traditional credit networks. There are also "pre-paid credit cards" which act like a debit card but can only be charged using the traditional "credit" networks. The card itself does not necessarily indicate whether it is connected to an existing pile of money, or merely represents a promise to pay later.

In some countries: The "debit" networks typically require that purchases be made in person and that a personal identification number be supplied. The "credit" networks allow cards to be charged with only a signature, and/or picture ID.

In other countries: Identification typically requires the entering of a personal identification number or signing a piece of paper. This is regardless of whether the card network in use mostly is used for credit transactions or for debit transactions. In the event of an offline transaction (regardless of whether the offline transaction is a credit transaction or a debit transaction), identification using a PIN is impossible, so only signatures on pieces of paper work.

In some countries: Consumer protections also vary, depending on the network used. Visa and MasterCard, for instance, prohibit minimum and maximum purchase sizes, surcharges, and arbitrary security procedures on the part of merchants. Merchants are usually charged higher transaction fees for credit transactions, since debit network transactions are less likely to be fraudulent. This may lead them to "steer" customers to debit transactions. Consumers disputing charges may find it easier to do so with a credit card, since the money will not immediately leave their control. Fraudulent charges on a debit card can also cause problems with a checking account because the money is withdrawn immediately and may thus result in an overdraft or bounced checks. In some cases debit card-issuing banks will promptly refund any disputed charges until the matter can be settled, and in some jurisdictions the consumer liability for unauthorized charges is the same for both debit and credit cards.

In other countries: In India and Sweden, the consumer protection is the same regardless of the network used. Some banks set minimum and maximum purchase sizes, mostly for online-only cards. However, this has nothing to do with the card networks, but rather with the bank's judgement of the person's age and credit records. Any fees that the customers have to pay to the bank are the same regardless of whether the transaction is conducted as a credit or as a debit transaction, so there is no advantage for the customers to choose one transaction mode over another. Shops may add surcharges to the price of the goods or services in accordance with laws allowing them to do so. Banks consider the purchases as having been made at the moment when the card was swiped, regardless of when the purchase settlement was made. Regardless of which transaction type was used, the purchase may result in an overdraft because the money is considered to have left the account at the moment of the card swiping.

Types of debit card

Although many debit cards are of the Visa or MasterCard brand, there are many other types of debit card, each accepted only within a particular country or region, for example Switch (now: Maestro) and Solo in the United Kingdom, Interac in Canada, Carte Bleue in France, Laser in Ireland, "EC electronic cash" (formerly Eurocheque) in Germany and EFTPOS cards in Australia and New Zealand. The need for cross-border compatibility and the advent of the euro recently led to many of these card networks (such as Switzerland's "EC direkt", Austria's "Bankomatkasse" and Switch in the United Kingdom) being re-branded with the internationally recognised Maestro logo, which is part of the MasterCard brand. Some debit cards are dual branded with the logo of the (former) national card as well as Maestro (e.g. EC cards in Germany, Laser cards in Ireland, Switch and Solo in the UK, Pinpas cards in the Netherlands, Bancontact cards in Belgium, etc.). The use of a debit card system allows operators to package their product more effectively while monitoring customer spending. An example of one of these systems is ECS by Embed International. A prepaid debit card looks a lot like a credit card. It even works a lot like a credit card, when you use it in a store to purchase products. However, a prepaid credit card is not a credit card. The two work very differently.

Whenever you use a credit card, you are borrowing money from someone else to purchase something. A credit card is then, in essence, a loan. It doesn’t matter if it is a secure credit card, a small business credit card or anything else: the credit card company is lending you money in order to make your purchase, for which you are going to be charged interest on later (assuming you don’t pay the total balance within a predetermined period).

A prepaid debit card, on the other hand, is not a loan. It is simply a method following some of the principles of credit cards for the basic transaction, but instead of borrowing money from a third party you are taking money straight from your debit card account. This is why it is referred to as prepaid: you put the money into the account, then you can take the money out of it using your debit card, as opposed to paying for the purchase after the fact with a credit card.

Because of this there are no interest rates applied to prepaid debit cards, although there are sometimes fees associated with them. You never have to worry about going into debt using a prepaid debit card, since you are only taking out what you take in. Many people find them a welcome alternative to traditional credit cards. Traditional debit cards, however, are not prepaid but simply linked to a bank account. This means it is sometimes possible to go overdrawn (effectively a loan), and incur interest charges and/or fees. However, if the bank account has sufficient funds to cover the transaction amount, no fees or charges will generally be applied. .

France

Banks in France charge annual fees for debit cards (despite card payments being very cost efficient for the banks), yet they do not charge personal customers for checkbooks or processing checks (despite checks being very costly for the banks). This imbalance most probably dates from the unilateral introduction in France of Chip and PIN debit cards in the early 1990s, when the cost of this technology was much higher than it is now. Credit cards of the type found in the United Kingdom and United States are unusual in France and the closest equivalent is the deferred debit card, which operates like a normal debit card, except that all purchase transactions are postponed until the end of the month, thereby giving the customer between 1 and 31 days of interest-free credit. The annual fee for a deferred debit card is around €10 more than for one with immediate debit. Most France debit cards are branded with the Carte Bleue logo, which assures acceptance throughout France. Most card holders choose to pay around €5 more in their annual fee to additionally have a Visa or a MasterCard logo on their Carte Bleue, so that the card is accepted internationally. A Carte Bleue without a Visa or a MasterCard logo is often known as a "Carte Bleue Nationale" and a Carte Bleue with a Visa or a MasterCard logo is known as a "Carte Bleue Internationale", or more frequently, simply called a "Visa" or "MasterCard". Many smaller merchants in France refuse to accept debit cards for transactions under €15 (equivalent to 100 French Francs) because of the minimum fee charged by merchants' banks per transaction. Merchants in France do not differentiate between debit and credit cards, and so both have equal acceptance. However, Visa's and MasterCard's regulations prohibit merchants from setting minimum charge amounts. American Express's policy is to discourage any merchant practices that create a "barrier to acceptance" and setting minimum charge limits is such a barrier. Amex does prohibit "discrimination" against the Amex card, which means they cannot have minimum charge for Amex but not for Visa and MasterCard but they cannot have a minimum charge for Visa and MasterCard because Visa and MasterCard prohibit this.