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Janet

In article >,
says...
>
> On Saturday, October 18, 2014 4:15:27 PM UTC-4, JohnJohn wrote:
> > On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:10:42 -0700, sf > wrote:
> > >On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:50:57 -0300, wrote:
> >
> > >> What can go wrong with a debit card???
> > >It can be lost or stolen and your account emptied with no recourse.
>
> The VISA and MasterCard branded cards all seem to offer the same recourse as their regular credit cards on their debit cards. I still won't use one, but the "no recourse" argument is mostly specious.
> >
> > Don't your debit cards come with a code without which they're useless?
>
> The problem is that about 20 years ago the credit card companies managed to redefine the term "debit card" in the USA. At least that seems to be what happened. It used to be that what are now called "ATM only" cards were called debit cards. VISA and MasterCard started putting their brand on them and made them both debit and credit in one card, but called them debit cards. Now most folks, including bank employees, don't realize that ATM only cards can be used as
debit cards with the big difference being you *must* use a PIN and it can't be used like a credit card. So, if you lose it, the thief has to also know your PIN to use it, and has to go to a terminal where the card is swiped/read and the PIN entered. They can't just go on-line and order stuff off Amazon or whatever.
>
> I recently had to switch banks because mine was bought out and they stopped allowing their ATM cards to be used at point-of-sale terminals. I had several people at that bank insist that ATM cards never worked for that, nevermind that I have been doing it for 20+ years. There seems to be a lot of deliberate obfuscation and lack of transparency with the big banks and credit card companies. Whether that's intentional or not is left for you to decide for yourselves.
>
> Bill Ranck
> Blacksburg, VA

I wondered why Americans were talking about ATM cards.

In the UK, debit and credit cards can be used in ATMs

Fraud losses on credit and debit cards are covered by the issuing
bank.

Janet UK