What is the card called that you put into the ATM to get money (not a Credit card)? In Australia there is no set word. Some call it a key card, some call it an access card,some call it an ATM card,some call it an EFTPOS card. Many call it just ‘card’.
I call mine ‘Freddy’ not ‘card’. But any chance of serious answers rather than jokes…
In the states, it’s either ATM card or debit card (if it’s a debit card as well, which nowadays most are.) Some people might just call it their ‘card’, but sometimes ‘card’ is also used to refer to credit card.
Here in the US, it’s called a Debit card, because generally, it draws directly from your checking account.
I agree with bouv. It’s an ATM card. Most ATM cards are also debit cards, but there are still some around that aren’t. Even if it is also a debit card, if the context is using it in an ATM, then it will be referred to as an “ATM card,” not as a “debit card.”
I call it my bank card.
Bank card here. It’s also my debit card, though, so I tend to use the terms interchangably.
It’s my debit card. In Canada, you’ll either hear debit or bank card, at least from my experience.
I call it any of the following:
Bank card
Debit card
Check card
ATM card
Cash card
Me, “cashpoint card”. I think most Brits would use this.
On the card, under the name of the bank is “First Checking” & next to the ‘Visa’ logo is “DEBIT” so, officially it is a
bank name “First Checking” and “Visa DEBIT Card”
Or call it whatever you prefer, ATM, Fast Cash, FunyMunyCard, etc. etc., as long as it get the money!
In Milwaukee and some of it’s suburbs it is still sometimes(most times?) referred to as a Tyme card, and you don’t use an ATM, you use a Tyme machine.
Reasons why here .
And don’t even ask about the word “bubbler”.
Mine, issued by Los Alamos National Bank, has printed on it both “CHECK CARD”, and “atom ATM”.
I call mine an ATM card since that’s all I can use it for. At least I think…I’ve never tried to use it for anything else.
It says “MAC” on the front with the same logo as found on most ATMs. It does not have a Visa or Master Card logo on it.
It’s my banking card or debit card. Or money-machine card. Officially, it’s my “client card”.
In Canada, debit cards do not use the MasterCard or Visa systems; there is a separate nation-wide debit system shared by all the banks and financial institutions. The cards used therein developed from the access cards used by bank customers to get at their accounts when away from their home branch.
I am just old enough to remember Bank of Montreal 's “Multi-Branch Banking” push, when suddenly the bank’s customers could access their money at any branch of the bank. To get your money from a Bank of Montreal account, you had to use a Bank of Montreal passbook or access card.
Then, around 1980, bank-specific ABMs appeared. To get your money from a Bank of Montreal account, you had to use a Bank of Montreal access card. Access cards became a lot more popular.
Then they connected all the different ABMs systems of the banks together, and added more ABMs not owned by any bank. Any bank card could now be used in any ABM.
Then the ABM consortium rolled out debit-card purchases at merchants. You used the same card and PIN as you used at ABMs.
At no time during this debit-system evolution was the credit-card system involved… except at the merchant, whose terminal often accepted both types of cards.
I was quite confused when I came to these boards and encountered the term ‘check card’. To me, that’s a form of ID you might present when offering a paper cheque to a retailer.
ISTR that there was (or is) a system for immediate verification of cheques at large retailers. Accepting cheques is becoming more and more uncommon at large retailers, probably because everyone uses credit or debit for large purchases, more frequently than cash. The grocery stores near me have all stopped acceptiong cheques in the past few years.
It is almost never called a Bank card here becuase there used to be a credit card called ‘Bankcard’’. It is not called a ‘debit’ card usually becuase many people have Visa debit cards and it is confusing if people call an ATM card a debit card.
It is interesting that there seems no agreement on the name that has emerged over the years
Just remembered the best name, that a friend of mine from Northern Ireland used:
Drinklink.
Bankers call them “plastic.” ATM, debit, Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Mondex, whatever - it’s all plastic.
As in “I’ve got a customer who lost their plastic. Can you call Plastic Issuance to see how long will it take to get them a replacement?”
I work in a bank and it is very useful to have distinctions. Different depts cover different accounts. I deal with savings accounts only. I get lots of calls from people that I have to transfer to other depts.
Many people say to me 'How much is in my card?" when they mean account. They ask me how does a debit card work. I have to ask a visa debit card or an access card.
Lost cards dept tell me they have customers who say “I lost my debit card” or
“I lost my card”. They have to ask which card. Most customers have more than one card.
I tried to use “An Offering to the Fiscal Gods”, but it never really caught on…