Comments on: Don’t Pay Debit Card Fees

By: Christopher Johns

Christopher Johns — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:49:21 +0000

Hmm. Good point. I had always believed that Visa and MC cover debit same as credit. Looking at the site, Visa hedges its bet and does say you need to use the ‘credit’ option with its debit card to receive the protection. That is sketchy.

By: John Hunter

John Hunter — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:57:55 +0000

I believe there is some truth to what you say: after many many complaints, they added some protections (as I remember it). However, I just checked the Visa site and I don’t see anything about replicating the right to dispute charges, for example.

Given finance companies history with trying to get away with every trick they can pull on their customers I would not assume you are protected unless they clearly and unambiguously say – there are no protections we provide for your credit card that are not provided for your debit card.

Others can chose to believe that the credit card companies are not trying to trick them in one way or the other. I wouldn’t take that path myself.

There are also legal differences, I believe. So even if Visa said we choose to treat the debit card exactly like a credit card in all ways – I don’t believe that impacts the law. And Visa can probably change their minds anytime they want (from the legal document I have seen the past they always say this).

Finance companies behavior over decades has led me to believe that trusting them to treat you fairly is unwise.

By: Christopher Johns

Christopher Johns — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:56:46 +0000

“In the first place debit cards are a bad idea. They don’t have the same protection as credit cards.”

You might want to qualify that. I’m pretty sure that all Visa and Mastercard debit cards have the exact same protection as a credit card.