Yup, especially for large ticket items. This is why we stopped taking amex, folks come in and swipe their super duper amex card for a $1,000 computer and we get charged $50-$70 for the priveledge. If it was a standard VISA/MC, about $18, debit $0.35.
If it was your business, which would you prefer.
I have started offering $1 off for debit or cash payments.
[quote=“Bambi_Hassenpfeffer, post:19, topic:611591”]
[li]Debit card: Issued by your bank and tied to your checking and savings accounts, but in addition to all the ATM network logos it may carry on the back, it will also carry either a VISA or MasterCard logo on the front. This card can be used at an ATM to withdraw money from your checking or savings account, or at POS for a purchase. If you use it at POS for a purchase, you can run it as a credit card (and sign for the purchase, unless the merchant has a no-signature contract with its processor) or as a debit card (and use your PIN). As a credit card, there is no option to get cash back, but likely a lesser fee to you (but a greater one to the merchant). As a debit card, there will be an option to get cash back, but a larger fee to you (and a smaller one to the merchant). In either instance, the money from the purchase will be taken from the account the card is tied to – as opposed to a traditional credit card, which would add the purchase amount to your outstanding balance.[/list][/li][/QUOTE]
Why then, in the times when I swipe my debit card at some businesses, it is automatically run as credit? I am not even given the option of choosing, and if the fee is greater for the merchant, why would this practice be embraced?
Ambivalid, not all merchants have contracts for processing debit cards – like Taco Bell, for instance. They don’t ask which, they just take all cards as credit cards.
Thank you for answering the question I was about to ask. Maybe this is a Canadian thing, but I’ve never heard of a debit card you can run as a credit card. I have a credit card issued by my bank, and also something called a debit card, but which by your definition is an ATM card. Is this “debit **or **credit on one card” concept new?
Within the last 10-15 years or so, yeah. When they were first marketed, they were branded “check cards”, because people still wrote a lot of checks and the banks were trying to train people out of that. Now, they’ve almost completely supplanted checks for merchant transactions, and the industry term is “debit card”.