A debit card by definition is for purchases. Something that’s useable only at an ATM to extract cash would be an ATM card. AFAIK, nobody issues those anymore. You might find some weird small town Mom n Pop with 3 2 ATMs in their lobby and none anywhere else on earth.
But you’re already seeing the limitations of dealing with MomnPops.
Good point - my terminology was wrong, I should have said ATM card.
The “mom and pop with 2 ATMs in their lobby” is more common than you’d think - we’ve been to a number of places that don’t take credit but have an ATM. Lou Mitchell’s in Chicago was one (I think they’ve changed that, but we were last there 10 years ago). Lombardo’s (Lombardi’s?) Pizza in NY. Most recently it WAS the local shop in a small town in Vermont, to be fair.
No, I meant a MomnPop bank that only owned 2 ATMS, one in the lobby of each branch.
I think ATMs in the lobby of retail stores and restaurants is kinda common in some parts of the country in the lower SESs. If small biz can get the culture used to paying a 3% surcharge for credit cards, the store’s motivation for those ATM machines will decline.
Where I live, the 3% upcharge for credit cards is rapidly becoming standard.
Actually, I’m not quite happy using the term “ATM” to refer to those kinds of commercial cash vending machines with high fees. I think “ATM” should be reserved for machines owned and operated by financial institutions where you can retrieve your money in cash at no or very small cost.
Where I’m living now, most of the delivery companies are OK- they generally show up when they say they will, they leave parcels in sensible places (OK, there was one left on a neighbour’s doorstep right below the big ‘27’ the door despite that not being the number on the package, but still)… Food delivery works, even getting here before it gets cold. So why, why does the specialist 24 hour courier that everyone seems to be using for extra large items have to be so goddam useless?
The ‘tracking’ literally gives a day. It could be any time from 8am - 6pm. Even if you manage to sleuth your way to finding an actual contact number for them, they can’t even narrow it down to ‘morning’ or ‘afternoon’. I assume they mainly work with businesses or something, but a 10 hour freaking delivery window? Really?
Last time I had the misfortune to get something from them- a polytunnel kit- it was delivered at 5:50pm. Oh, did I say delivered? I meant 6 of the 8 parcels were delivered. The rest came 4 days later. I was also sent- by the actual delivery company- a tracking code that was somehow an internal code used by the seller, not an actual valid tracking code.
I would very much like to have not dealt with them again, in fact, but sadly had no choice when buying another item too large for the standard companies.
According to their website, my parcel is due today. I’ve already had to cancel my plans for the afternoon, because no, you can’t change the delivery day, nor can you request it be left in a safe space- you can request delivery to a neighbour, but I’m on a weird corner plot so there’s really only one sensible house to consider as an option, she’s out and also semi-disabled so not gonna deal with a parcel this size even if she was there.
It is currently 5:30pm.
5 minutes ago I got an email from the seller saying they’d just passed it to the delivery company. I have no idea if they’re running late with updates (I hope so- I have had dispatch notifications when I’m standing there holding the item multiple times) or the delivery company is just lying on the tracking website. I can’t be in all day tomorrow.
How much blood? Asking for a friend.
Yup. The pizza joint I work at just started this a few weeks ago, and that day when it first started, when I went out for a lunch snack, the drive-thru I visited - which never did this before, either - had initiated the practice as well.
I foresee an upswing in people using “real” ATMs so they have cash on hand.
I mean, 3% on a $19 pizza amounts to couch-cushion change, but for larger purchases, it can make a difference.
I recently responded to an unsolicited text from someone who asked if I was interested in selling my vacant lot. I had it listed for sale about five years ago with no offers. I’m happy to hold onto it, the property taxes are cheap. I bought it at a tax sale auction for $1900 in 2012. Half acre heavily wooded, buildable lot, all utilities available with an easement for lake access nearby.
Out of curiosity I responded that I’d take 75k for it. They countered with 42. I asked for their business address and email. All I was told it’s SGS LLC in Florida. Google does not deliver results I’m looking for. Still they persist when I say no thanks. Then they up their offer, twice, including closing costs and fees. They want my email so they can send the offer. But they’re not forthcoming with any additional info but the phone number they’re texting from and I’m supposed to jump into n bed with them?
More and more I’m thinking it’s some scam, guess I could give an alternative email to see this so called offer. And really I don’t want to sell to an out of state investor.
They solicited me, we are not in a deal, we are not moving forward, we are not of the same mind! Get off my back I’m about to block you.
But damn, thanks for your estimation of the value of my lot. Noted and filed away for future reference.
Well… it is remote, but the northen island of Zanzibar has ATMs that only accept local debit cards.
Caused me some issues where I had to hire a guy to take me on a 1hr motorcycle ride to sneak in the back of a really exclusive resort in order to buy a single beer, in order to be overcharged and get around 300 USD worth of Tanzanian shilling in change.
This is extremely helpful information for me. If I even get a minor cut my kitchen sink looks like a butcher shop (blood thinners).
Gonna put it on my future shopping list.
Salt and cold water also works really well for blood.
I will keep that in mind.
For the many of us who use CCs for substantially 100% of purchases, if this gets going, it’ll be the same as an extra 3% inflation. So 1-2 year’s worth.
Because you know the retail prices aren’t going to go down, or even pause their ongoing increases, as that CC cost burden is transferred from the merchant to the customer.
If you haven’t seen them, here are two related recent threads that discuss folks’ attitudes to paying cash or credit.
ISTM the government would rather not grow the cash economy. But if everything I spend at retail now has a 3% surcharge attached, I and lots of other biggish spenders will return to doing everything in nice fun un-traceable untaxable cash.
On the subject of carrying around cash, as I said earlier, I don’t any more and have never had any need to for at least a decade. Tips in restaurants or to anyone else can just be added to the total. Parking would often be a traditional example of the need for cash. Not any more.
I recently had three medical appointments: my PCP, a specialist, and an imaging clinic. My PCP office has free parking. The specialist’s office makes you pay, but you just tap your CC before leaving the building and it spits out an exit pass. The clinic is in a building with commercial paid parking, but the clinic gives you a magic token that you feed to the machine to open the gate. For those with other business that don’t offer magic tokens, the machine at the gate takes credit cards.
I think I have an established reputation here as an Old Fart stuck in Old Ways and possibly a Luddite – the very embodiment of the principle that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” – but if even I have no use for cash, I can hardly imagine why anyone else does.
My son is in the blackhat/whitehat world. It is his area of expertise and he uses and recommended Bitwarden.
The first go at setting up the first stored link/password was hard. New way of thinking, no mistakes, etc.
After that, it was just rinse and repeat.
My two cents- use Bitwarden.
My CU does because I have one.
Debit cards are one of the biggest scams foisted on the populace. They don’t have the same purchase protections as CCs do & if it does get compromised, it’s your money that’s missing from your checking account rather than their money/your spending limit from a CC account, which isn’t that big of a deal if you have another CC. Working in the banking world, I’ve seen horror stories related to compromised cards, from dinged credit scores to extensive (collective) late/bounce fees.
Even some of those Especially those owned by a large financial institution can ding you with quite a hefty percentage fee if you only take out a few bucks; you’re right, it’s not as bad as some of the ‘private’ ATMs in a business but a $2 or $3 non-customer fee to take out $20 at a national bank’s ATM is a 10 or 15% service charge; significantly more than the 3% CC fee.
I didn’t take lunch with me today…or my phone; I need my phone today so I had to turn around & get 'em. It was a late night, but tonight will be much later. Between Tuesday’s very early morning & tonight’s extremely late night, I will be up every one of the 24 hours in a matter of days; almost did that between Tues morning & last night, but 20+ is not 24. I need caffeine…& sleep
Total agreement.
Ouch!! You sure do. Don’t waste energy posting. Doze when you can; work if you must.
Every once in a while I fall into a state of all-consuming paralysis about our current political situation, and I can’t get any work done. Today appears to be one of those days. I guess it would be weird if it didn’t affect me.
Ah - I getcha.
Yeah, that kind of place is getting pretty rare indeed. Plus you can now go to any ATM and get your money, albeit possibly with a fee involved. We like to go to credit unions for that, as they don’t typically charge a fee for withdrawals from other credit unions’ accounts, but there are parts of the country where CUs aren’t as thick on the ground as they are around here.
I’m inclined to agree. Unless you are unable to get a credit card, there’s very little benefit to using one except possibly better control over your immediate spending - too easy to ignore the credit card purchases. But even so, using a debit card for a purchase can lead to overspending.
Plus, if you use one for things like a hotel or a rental car, the entire cost plus a large buffer is basically put on hold, so you can’t use YOUR OWN MONEY for other things.
In theory, you will get fraudulent money back - but it can take a lot longer and if you need to pay the rent tomorrow, you’re SOL.
Tues night was good sleep as the fuel light came on (in the body, not the car) & then sputtered out early. Luckily I was already lying on the bed whence that happened; sadly, I was doing something very important at that time (No, not that); twas scritching my baby gurl!
Some of the convenience store chains have free ATMs on the theory it drives traffic into their store & therefore other purchases from them. You’re in Wawa country, aren’t you?
Atari can kiss my ass.
In March, I bought and assembled a Lego set that resembles an old Atari 2600. It got me feeling nostalgic, and a few months later I learned that Atari is selling 2600+ consoles: I decided to get one, and placed an order for the console, a wireless joystick, paddles, and a few cartridges – including a pre-order of a Pac-Man cartridge that isn’t scheduled to release until October. Everything else was in stock and supposed to ship within a week or two. The order confirmation said, “If one or more of your items are pre-orders, they will ship separately within the timeframe listed on the product page.”
Two weeks went by without a shipping notice. I emailed support – there’s no phone number easily found, just an email address – and asked what’s up. Ten days (!) later I got this response: “Upon reviewing your order, I see that it contains both in-stock items and one pre-order item. This is the reason your order has not shipped yet. Your order will be shipped once all items are available.” I pointed out the language in the order confirmation, and said if the in-stock items couldn’t ship before October I wanted to cancel the pre-order item. Three days later I got the refund for that item, an apology, and a note that “Your order is now scheduled to ship within 3–5 business days.”
Eight business days go by; no shipping notice. I emailed support again yesterday, and this morning I got a “let me check with the warehouse” response. I just – finally – got the shipping notice…almost 6 weeks after placing the order! You can bet I’ll be checking the FedEx tracking info every day until it lands on my doorstep, and hoping that everything works. If I ever have to deal with Atari “customer service” again it will be too soon.