POLL: Credit or Debit Cards?

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And yet, there is no one who has checked the "cash" option in the poll.

@ Fel - I didn't think anyone still used handwritten cheques for shopping anymore. I still pay my credit card by writing a cheque, and I'll also send a cheque for a birthday gift through the mail to one of my seemingly innumerable nephews or nieces, but the total number of cheques I write are small compared to the number of transactions I do.

This exact scenario happened to my friend. He ordered an entire bedroom set from a furniture store, and spent a few thousand dollars. One of the pieces - the headboard of the bed specifically - was defective. He asked for a replacement, which was also defective. As was the third headboard they sent to him. At this point he went back to the store to speak with the management, at which point he found out that the bedroom set that he purchased was being discontinued (it had been a couple of months from the initial purchase and three subsequent deliveries) and that they couldn't acquire another headboard for him.

The manager offered to replace it with the new model that was coming out that was the same price as the old headboard. The problem was the main reason my friend picked that specific bedroom set was that he has an L-shaped bedroom, and needed a bed that fit well into one side of the L. The new bed the manager was offering was about 20 cm wider than the old bed, and as a result would stick out from the wall, which my friend didn't want. (And he had spent over $3000, so I really can't blame him - for that much money, I'd want it to look good too.)

So my friend asked if he could replace it with another more expensive set that WOULD fit into the bedroom. This set was about $500 more than the set he had initially purchased. The manager said no, and refused to refund the money on the first set as it had been over 60 days. At this point, my friend called his credit card company, disputed the transaction, and got his money back. As a bonus, the onus is on the furniture company to pick up the old furniture. They have 90 days to come back and collect their furniture, after which time my friend gets to keep it for free. The 90 days are almost up, and they haven't contacted him to set up a pick-up date.

 

Credit cards were a nightmare with my ex. I would pay them off and she would charge them back to the limit. We never had any money in savings because she would spend that, too (and refused to work to help pay for all the stuff she wanted).

Fortunately, I now have a partner who has the same level of fiscal responsibility as me. We use either debit or credit card and pay the balance on the credit cards every month. We typically use a GM card -- thus far we've applied ~$3000 towards cars we've purchased over the past few years.

 

Our credit card gives us universal airline miles. We flew the whole family (three seats, since Marcus was in my lap) to Florida over Christmas for a total of $178 out of pocket.

 

Sorry, bit off topic, but jeez Rally! Things like this really make me realise how cheap European airlines are if that is considered a really cheap price over in the US.

Me and 3 of my mates could fly to Germany or somewhere like that for £80 at the most. Probably closer to £60!

 

@Barmy - I can't believe how LOW airfare is in Europe. Rally's price is low by American standards. You can easily spend that much to fly from the northeast to Florida for a single ticket, and she got three.

 

Er...you should speak to people in our supermarkets then It takes some of them at least 10 minutes to type the 4 digits in

 

I still disagree. I timed how long it took for me to order and pay for my special beef Thai noodles for lunch yesterday ($8.50) via debit card and the whole transaction took 9 seconds. Hard to see how paying by cash could have been any quicker.

 

Unfortunately Macy's doesn't require a PIN# but the illegal charge can be contested. Just be sure to report the theft of the debit card right away and here in the USA report it to the police if over a certain amount. The bank will tell you.

 

Oh dear mate, just as I think you can't get any sadder...

 

As a "Customer Assistant" (read: Till Monkey ) I can confirm that - for most people - Debit/credit card is quicker, because there's no need to faff about with change. The problem is the occasional person who doesn't know their PIN (or gets confused about which PIN goes with which card), who can slow things down considerably. People who write down their numbers are the worst, because there's a definite correlation between people who can't remember their PIN and people who can't remember where they put the piece of paper they wrote their PIN on.

 

Debit card only for me.
It means I can only spend the money I actually have and therefore equivalently limits how much money could potentially be stolen from me.

I've never liked the concept of being in debt (the first and only time is the mortgage which I'm paying off as fast as possible) and I would really resent having to pay interest if I forgot to make a monthly payment (especially given the interst rates)

 

I would never use a debit card. We use credit cards and pay off the balance each month so we don't pay any finance fees. The convenience is very important and the benefits (cash back, airline trips, money towards new cars, etc.) sweeten the deal even more.

I haven't seen any debit cards that offer any benefits except having the money sucked out of your account quicker so you can't earn any interest on it.

 

Thanks for confirming that. I too used to be a checkout operator and can also confirm that debit cards are easily the fastest method of payment (unless some bought something for exactly $5 and paid with a $5 note).

The main benefits of a debit card are:
1) Fast
2) Accepted in more places than credit cards, especially for small transactions
3) Sucks your money out less quickly than cash (which you usually have to withdraw some time before you use it)
4) Can't spend money you don't have

I am fascinated by the strong opinions in this thread!

 

I have never seen a place that took debit cards and didn't take credit cards.

 

America must be a bit different then. A lot of palces these days prefer people to use debit cars rather than cash, and won't accept actually credit cards.

edit - I've just read this post and realise that it doesn't make one word of sense. Oh well.

[ March 18, 2006, 01:46: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]

 

So your corner shop will let you use a credit card for a $4.95 transaction? What about the local chinese takeaway? Or the cafe where you get your $3 espresso on the way to work? Those are the places I would use my debit card instead of my credit card.

 

I'm not a fan of credit cards. I feel uncomfortable with the concept of spending money I don't have. I am not especially fond of debit cards too - stupid banks pay no interests, yet impose fees to make people spend. So it's cold, hard cash for me.

BTW, Aldeth, all your topics in AoDA are always interesting. Keep up the good work, dude.

 

Can you elaborate on that please? How does a bank charge a fee to make people spend?

 

I'm not able to get a credit card, as I don't have a steady income.