> Friends visiting the US told me that at the POS terminal they had to choose credit card despite paying with a Visa/Mastercard debit card issued by an European

> Friends visiting the US told me that at the POS terminal they had to choose credit card despite paying with a Visa/Mastercard debit card issued by an European bank. The "credit" button in the US really means "use the Visa/Mastercard network and don't ask me for a PIN", as opposed to "feel free to ask me for my PIN and route the transaction over one of a dozen or so US domestic debit networks". The question doesn't even make sense for non-US debit cards.