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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (170)	9/6/2006 6:44:26 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

What fee? There's no fee for buying something with a debit card. If you buy groceries with your Visa debit card, you can use the card as a credit card (don't enter a pin). In this case the grocery store pays Visa a fee and you don't pay a fee, (but you can spend more than you have your account and be subject to overdraft fees). You can also use it as an ATM card (enter your pin). In this case the bank can charge a fee and most do. (The store may also legally be entitled to charge a fee but I've never seen one do so.) Perhaps you never use your debit card as an ATM card at the grocery store, or perhaps your bank doesn't charge fees, but if it doesn't you are in a small minority. but you have no protection from overdrafts. You will be allowed to exceed the limit and you will be charged for it. I can't make sense of this. I understand what you said but it doesn't make sense that it would work that way. Credit cards have credit limits. If they let you shop til you drop with your effectively unlimited debit card, you could buy tons of stuff and then skip out on it. With debit cards, the balance in the account takes the place of the credit limit. Your account will be blocked if you try to spend past it. No? No. Purchases that vastly exceed your available funds might be disallowed but purchases that exceed the available funds only slightly often won't be. I don't know the exact limit or how it is determined. Again its possible that specific banks or cards might be different but generally you can get yourself in trouble thinking "I can't be over the limit, or the purchase wouldn't go through".