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Very different in the US. US consumer protection laws treat credit and debit cards differently. They favor credit cards. The gap between the two is up to the
by sbov 11y ago
Very different in the US.
US consumer protection laws treat credit and debit cards differently. They favor credit cards. The gap between the two is up to the goodwill of your bank.
I prefer to rely on law than goodwill. I have never had a problem with getting a refund on a credit card charge I claimed was fraud.
I have no idea why people choose to use a debit card over a credit card here.
- jandrese 11y agoThe thread might be titled "People tend to use the safest (to them) form of payment available". If your credit card laws protect the consumer a lot (like in the US) then you use credit cards. If you have some in-country debit system with better protection you use that instead. One reason it's so hard to unseat credit cards in the US is because most of the advantages of the alternatives are on the sellers side. The consumer doesn't seen any benefit from switching to Apple Pay or whatever. Most merchant agreements don't even let stores charge less for using non-credit card type payments (although some stores do anyway). As a US citizen I use my credit cards constantly. It's an instant 1% discount on everything I buy (thanks to the cash back), and its fast and easy. I pay it off every month to avoid paying interest. There's basically no downside to me. The story would be different if retailers were allowed to directly pass on the service fees however. I would definitely think twice if every time I used it I got surcharged $0.50.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoMerchants in the US are now legally allowed to charge a surcharge for credit card transactions, regardless of their merchant agreement.
- emodendroket 11y agoIt doesn't seem like anybody besides gas stations is really doing this, though.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoTrue, I was just pointing out that legally, they can.