|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
I've heard that direct payment didn't really take off in the US. True or false? Do you personally use cash a lot?
To this Old Lady, direct payment IS cash!
I have two friends in high banking positions ... neither has a debit card. Hmmmmm.
Of Troy makes an excellent point about the stealing of PIN numbers and cloning of cards and the $50 liability for credit cards.
At my bank recently the Head Teller asked if I wouldn't like using their new debit cards. She went to extoll the virtues of said cards.
"So much easier than writing out checks," she said enthusiastically!
"No thanks," I replied, "I don't want to lose the float."
"Oh, they never mentioned that in our seminar" she said with a puzzled look.
"Float" is the time between when you write a check and it gets through the system and the debit is posted to your account.
Interest bearing checking accounts compute on the "average daily balance."
Pay your bills on Friday afternoon and the check isn't debited to you until probably Monday or even Tuesday. Or Wednesday in event of Monday holidays. With Debit Cards the deduction is immediate!
Doesn't sound like much $$$ ...?? ... Think about how long you'll have a checking account. I've had one since 1950 when I turned 21. Probably earned enough for a RT ticket to Ireland over the years.
Ask yourself : If Debit Cards did not make money for the Bank, would they offer them?
Just a random thought...
wow
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
i only use cash to pay my housekeeper and non-citizen gardeners and such, or sometimes to get discounts on big ticket items like furniture or home improvements. my bank charges a nominal fee the first time you use your ATM card for goods and services each month (i think it's like $10 or so) then you have unlimited use of it the rest of the month. As someone pointed out, it can be used as a credit card, with no PIN at all, at many places, but my bank covers any unauthorized usage without any penalty deductibles, so the convenience is worth the risk of having to deal with being temporarily without a checking account in the event that my card is stolen and my bank account cleared. My grocery store has its own Debit Card which is linked directly to my checking account, so i never use cash there.... and i never even write physical checks to pay bills because i do it all online through Quicken. In fact, i don't even have to prompt the payments to go through on my 'fixed' bills such as mortgage, car payments, cable, schooling, donations, etc. It makes life a bit more simple, and all this automation leaves more time for AWAD and other distractions 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I guess, if what of troy and wow posted is typical of an American's sentiment toward the Direct Payment method, then I can see why it didn't take off as quickly there. No offense, of course, but I don't think I've ever heard ANYONE here respond as vehemently as they did to the question about debit cards. [quiver-in-fear emoticon] Ah well, I just wondered...and now I know!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Bean's Canadian currency site shows a picture of the 1991 $20 bill, with a portrait of Liz II on it, and underneath it notes that "a Common Loon is on the back." http://www.wallis.com/cdn_bills/English/1991_20.htm<insert own punch line here>
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
JFK half-dollar
Everyone seems to have forgotten the Eisenhour half-dollar, which had a bust of that President on one side and I forget what on the other (I have one at home). After the release of the Kennedy half-dollar, you didn't see them any more, and the Kennedy half-dollar was as short-lived as all half dollars. I hasn't been a popular coin because of its size.
No one has mentioned the gold coins, which were not uncommon before the U.S. went off the gold standard in the 1930's. (My father mentioned that his parents received their pay weekly, in gold and silver, no notes). The eagle was a gold coin about the size of a quarter, featuring an eagle, and worth $10; the half-eagle ($5) was smaller; the double eagle ($20) was about the size of a half dollar and was a very handsome coin. There were also bank notes which were redeemable in gold.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Max has a point about bank "disloyalty" fees, and I didn't mean to imply that the usage of ATMs wasn't dropping to some extent, because it is. But I think that the banks have it wrong - the usage of ATMs has dropped away because of the proliferation of EFT-POS, which stands for "electronic funds transfer - point of sale".
Like Bridget96, we have an arrangement with our bank which means that we pay a total of $20 per month in card-related fees for DD cards, including ATM withdrawals/deposits. While this doesn't obviate fees by other banks, I don't generally find this onerous because my bank hs so many ATMs that I rarely go to any other bank's machines. We also negotiated a deal to void fees on ATM transactions with another major bank on the basis that we have a mortgage with them, and did they REALLY want to keep our business? This probably covers at least 50% of the machines in NZ.
One of the blessings of ATMs is that I can use my direct debit card anywhere in the world that has ATMs. And given the relative lack of value of the NZ dollar anywhere but here, it's also one of the curses ...
One of the interesting issues that has arisen as a result of NZ's wholehearted embrace of cashlessness is that it is extremely difficult to get any business at all to accept a cheque. I used to write dozens of the damned things in a month, and now we pay precisely one (1) - count 'em - cheque a month on a regular basis, plus pay the odd tradesman (and most of them are odd).
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
I think paying bills should be a task ... reminds me it is real money ... also keeps me more cognizant of the finances in general, seeing the numbers, going through the checks. Easier to spot an error or a kited check, etc. Perhaps I am simply old fashioned but I do no personal banking business over the Net. I have one credit card that I use exclusively for updates on the McAfee thingie and that's about it. On other hand, perhaps some lean, tough years taught me to be more money conscious. I went to a seminar for seniors on "Scams" about a year ago and a woman spoke on how her identity was stolen and the hell she went though for FIVE years before it ended after they caught the thief. The police officer conducting the seminar noted the thief is not always caught and we should check statements, guard PINs etc etc. The theft in this particular instance was done this way : Her car was stolen. A police officer stopped the car for a minor violation. The thief (a woman) said she had lost her license but offered the registration that was in glove compartment. The officer called up name of registered owner on the computer and wrote THE THIEF a ticket which included The real car-owner's SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. The thief, armed with that info was off and running. It happens more than you think. The woman's bank accounts were cleaned out,the thief called the bank and changed the PIN number and got a new Debit Card mailed, charges on (new) credit cards were HUGE, her apartment was entered and cleaned out,(they had her ID) her credit was ruined. Sheer hell for five years. After hearing that I went to DMV and had my SS number taken off my driver's license ($10 fee.) Subsequent license, this year, I checked the box eliminating SS from license. I understand that in some states your Social Security number is your license number ...  I do not give my SS as an "identifier" and when I refuse EVERY TIME I have been given a random account number. Am I Cassandra? A lone voice in the wilderness? Ahhh, well. Not the first time. wow
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
wow--
There are quite a few horror stories like that one.
I am not touting this as a service (translated: they aren't paying me), but Discover Card has a new gimmick that makes one heck of a lot of sense. If you want to pay on lline with your discover card, you push a button on your screen and your computer links to the Discover Card center and it creates a one use Discover Card number for you. The program tells Discover whom you intend to pay (but not how much, I believe) and Discover creates a card number and inserts it in the proper space. You can then send it unsecured because only the merchant they already have associated with that particular number can "use" that account number. SLICK!!!
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
Am I a Cassandra? A lone voice in the wilderness?
No, not by a long shot. I was always under the impression that Social Security Numbers were private and not to be used for identification. However, what does Kutztown University of PA use for student ID numbers? You got it. Ditto for my dad's employee number at the railroad. He hates this fact and complains (loudly) about it at regular intervals.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,330
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
1,577
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
