of troy wrote: My ATM card was recent made into a "direct payment" card-- and I cut it up and sent it back!
Same card for both here, always has been. This is getting confusing.
I looked up the terms of ATM (and direct payment) cards on my bank's website. They don't hold you repsonsible for losses if you unintentionally contribtue to someone knowing your PIN (as in the example about the cameras) and you co-operate with their investigation. I guess that would be the fundamental difference in why they didn't take off in the US, but they are so popular here. People don't really fear using them here, or at least not for the same reasons. It's probably easier to forge a cheque than rip off ATM PINs.
Plus, it's such a pain to write cheques. Then you have to have your chequebook with you! For someone who still refuses to carry a purse, this is definitely an issue.
As for the service fees, here they are universal on all direct payment transactions, no matter what kind of store (see Faldage's post). I have decided to circumvent this so I use an Internet banking provider for day-to-day stuff, and they have no service fees at all.
