This is a pretty dismal scenario for rewards credit card users. Have any of you seen such fees being assessed? If so, for which of your merchants, which of your cards?
It looks like the best practice is to make a small separated checking account with the debit card attached, with a small amount of money in it, and lock the card when not in use. What a gigantic PITA!
This may spark interest in no-fee but also no-rewards credit cards. I can get them from my credit union or online bank. If I buy something for $20 and they hit you with a $1 fee, that’s a 5% fee, which negates even the richest rewards card, so you come out ahead by fee-avoidance rather than rewards-seeking.
I have been doing the separated checking account for some time as what I have seen referred to as a firewall account. I use that account to load to a cash app or paypal debit card. That way these other services have no direct connection to my primary bank accounts and I don’t even carry the debit card for the firewall account around with me
Thus far I haven’t seen fees being assessed on the rewards cards yet
So you have TWO layers of insulation… the separated bank account, and then the PayPal debit card. If the PayPal card has to be loaded with a manual push, why do you find it necessary to even use a separated bank account? It’s not like debit card fraud could pull from your bank, right? Am I missing something?
We’ll use cash as an alternative if we start seeing swipe fees. Probably will force us to budget our discretionary purchases more too. Maybe a good thing in the long run? I don’t weep for any of the credit card companies. My goal is to minimize what I pay for things, and this has posited a new challenge.
Paypal, cash app, venmo, etc cards are loaded with a pull initiated from their apps, not a push from the bank. That’s why you separate those from your primary account with a firewall account you normally keep low to empty cash wise. The apps have the account and routing info. The cards alone, however, can’t initiate the pull. If you lose the cards, shut them off from the app/website and ask for a new one. The bank debit card, however, is a direct line to the firewall account so any funds left in there are at risk if you lose that card until you cut that card off. I only carry one of those peer to peer app cards, a credit card, and a very small amount of cash at any given time. The peer to peer cards only get loaded with cash as needed. Usually, they are next to empty. The phone is unlocked by fingerprint or a very long pin and the lock timeout is short.
There have always been credit card fees just for using credit cards (3.5-4% or so), but it has historically been absorbed by the seller who must either lose profit or raise their prices. Customers haven’t seen this fee. In the past 2 years or so, I’ve seen restaurants charge customers the credit card fee – I’m not sure if this is everywhere or just in my state (?). Customers got mad that they had to pay for using their credit cards instead of the seller eating it or raising prices.
But I kind of looked at it the other way – customers who paid cash were previously paying the inflated price which included covering the credit card fee. Cash customers didn’t get a break on paying the inflated price! I like the option of cash or credit – you pay the fee if you use the credit card which generates fees to the sellers-- otherwise, pay cash and there’s no fee.
So I guess this is a new fee for customers, on top of the fee charged to sellers…
I’v open a Discover savings account plus a Discover checking account with it’s debit card that pays 1% back on money spent. When needed, move money from savings to checking to cover expenses.
Yes, this. Luckily my bank gave me an ATM-only card when I asked. I have their bank credit card, so I have no use for (or trust in) a debit card.
And the first time I got a debit card, I asked about security from theft. They told me the PIN will protect my account. I went to a store and purchased an item - no PIN needed! So yes, the account can be drained, and I find no comfort in eventually getting my money back !!
True, Clark’s strategy won’t help if the entire wallet is stolen, but that’s a slim chance. The more places you use a card, the more risk you have of the card number being stolen. So, the most likely theft comes from using a debit card for online purchases and in-person purchases, which exposes your debit card number to potential criminals who’ll use it as a credit card and drain your checking account. It’s much easier than stealing a wallet.
Many people don’t understand that Card Not Present transactions will not use the PIN, so its worthless. When my bank stopped issuing ATM-only cards, I went in and talked with the branch manager about disabling the POS option. I cannot remember what we did exactly, but either there was a disable switch or we were able to set the limit to $1. In any case, I tested it and all POS transactions failed afterward. This was well before the ability to lock/unlock was available in the mobile app.
For years now, Arco gas stations having been changing an extra 10 cents a gallon for any credit use, unless you get their Arco gas credit card. I just pay with cash now, it’s safer than using their swiping machines for credit cards anyways.
High credit card fees are only in the US. Again, we’re getting hosed. Everywhere else I’m aware of (Europe definitely), credit card fees are 0.5% or less.
B/A wants a six digit code to use my DC, but no PIN on CC’s. Bank rep told me no PIN on CC’s because their security is so good. Yes, that’s what she said.
My Capital One card allows for a PIN number for Cash Advance at an ATM, I quickly disabled that feature, as they charge a crazy amount for just getting cash from the ATM.
True, Clark’s strategy won’t help if the entire wallet is stolen, but that’s a slim chance. The more places you use a card, the more risk you have of the card number being stolen. So, the most likely theft comes from using a debit card for online purchases and in-person purchases, which exposes your debit card number to potential criminals who’ll use it as a credit card and drain your checking account. It’s much easier than stealing a wallet.