I have a Checkcard (an ATM card that also sports the logo of a Major Credit Card Brand). When I use this card at an ATM, I try to make sure that it’s an ATM from my bank, because if I use some other bank’s ATM, that bank charges me a fee, and so does my bank.
Much of the time, I don’t even deal with cash. At any place that takes credit card, I tend to use use my Checkcard as a credit card. Many merchants also have the option to process my card as a debit card transaction (i.e.: I enter my ATM PIN instead of signing a receipt, and I could do this with just a regular ATM card instead of a Checkcard).
I’ve avoided using my Checkcard as a debit card at the point of sale, because I was under the impression that If I did, my bank would charge me the same foregin transaction fee that it would if I were to use another bank’s ATM. For those dopers who actually pay by Debit card, is does this actually happen, or do those transactions get handled differently, with no extra charge?
If you were to get cash back with the purchase, you would be assessed the fee. Cash transactions always will incur fees, even if it’s merely cash back with purchase.
If you just debit the amount of purchase, it should not incur a fee, but call the bank to make sure.
I am quite sure there should not be any charges if you use a debit card for purchases. At least I have never incurred any.
I thoght this thread was going to be about something else and I may as well post it here. I recently bought some stuff online in Asia on a site which quoted the prices in US$ but when I saw the credit card statement the charges were a bit higher. I emailed the site to ask and they told me that it was a currency conversion fee charged by the credit card. I don’t get this because they quote their price in US$. Since the amount in dispute was under $1 I just dropped the whole matter but I am curious about how this works.
All banks are different, so you need to ask your bank. Hardygrrl’s answer does not apply to me. I often get cash back with a purchase, but have never incurred a charge. Some banks charge nothing, some banks will carge under certain circumstances, and some banks always charge on a debit transaction (to make up the money they’re losing when you don’t use it as a cedit card).
If you read the fine print at the Asian site, you’ll probably note that the you’ll be billed in local currency and that the dollar amount is an estimate based on current exchange rates. So, your credit card is actually billed in the local (asian) currency and therefore subject to fluctuations in the exchange rate. This should not amount to much these days because electronic transfers only take a day or so to process and most currencies are relatively stable.
I’ve never been charged a fee, but then again I’ve never gotten cash back so I don’t know about that situation. . .
On a related note, however, I saw on a local news station here in St. Louis (I don’t remember exactly which one) what the difference is between the two transaction types (as in, why does the store care whether it’s a debit or credit card, since almost all of them have a CC logo and can be used as such). I’ve noticed that at some stores when I swipe my card it automatically sets up the transaction as a debit and asks for my PIN (as opposed to asking if it’s debit/credit first)–I’m assuming it can determine somehow, or maybe it does this even for credit cards (there’s always a button next to the PIN keypad that says “Credit”). Either way, the store seems to want you to use the debit transaction instead of credit. Fascists Why? Because many stores pay a one-time or at least a flat fee to banks to have ATM services installed (which are used when you process your debit card with your PIN)–however, the fee the stores pay to the credit card companies for service is usually some kind of percentage of the credit card sales. So, apparently is often cheaper for the store if debit card users use their PIN instead of the CC system.
This is, simply, incorrect. I buy stuff with my Visa Check card all the time and get cash back nearly every week and never once have been assessed a fee for this.
I checked with my bank (It’s actually a Credit Union, so that might make a difference). If I were to perform a point of sale transaction as a Debit/ATM card, they would assess the foregin transaction fee, whether I were getting cash back from the transaction or not. YMMV.
Why? Because many stores pay a one-time or at least a flat fee to banks to have ATM services installed (which are used when you process your debit card with your PIN)–however, the fee the stores pay to the credit card companies for service is usually some kind of percentage of the credit card sales. So, apparently is often cheaper for the store if debit card users use their PIN instead of the CC system.