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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Credit card compromise
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 11-07-2012 10:37 AM
As a customer, I really hate when customers charge small purchases when there is a line of customers behind them. In most cases, these purchases take longer than cash transactions (increasing wait times and/or forcing the merchant to hire more cashiers), and increase prices for everyone due to the credit-card fees.
I realize that there are new types of credit-card machines that can authorize purchases quickly and, in some cases, do not require signatures, but not every merchant has these yet. Really, people, is it going to kill you to pay cash for a $10 purchase? It really isn't safe to leave the house without some cash on one's person, anyway.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 05-19-2013 11:31 AM
It is interesting to see the difference in "payment cultures", even over here in Europe there is quite some difference.
In the Netherlands, cash is slowly becoming extinct, which scares me to death to be honest. Cinemas, supermarkets, etc. are offering special cashiers that only allow payments with cards. Credit Cards are rather rare in the Netherlands, everybody is using debit cards. Credit Cards are almost never accepted, except at some restaurants, most hotels and most gas stations. Debit Card payments usually clear in under a second and charges are pretty low, so debit card transactions for even the smallest transactions are accepted. A charge back of a debit card payment over here is virtually impossible.
In Germany, things are quite different. People there tend to pay much more with cash. Sometimes I've got the feeling that they only invested in the appropriate card terminals, because those damned Dutch always want to pay with those things. Although, I see some change happening there too, but not yet for the smaller transactions.
In Belgium the situation is somewhat of a mixed bag. In general every body accept Debit Cards, but for small transactions there is often a surcharge.
Personally, I love the merits of simple cash, as not to leave a virtual paper trail of everything you do in your life.
And regarding Credit Cards: I hate those things, those incredibly insecure pieces of sh*t. It is hard to avoid them if you travel frequently or if you're doing business on-line, but I regard it as a hopefully temporary necessary evil. Mine has been replaced 3 times in the last 5 years, because some processor got hacked or it was possibly swiped trough some skimmed device at a hotel...
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-19-2013 04:46 PM
quote: Marcel Birgelen
In the Netherlands, cash is slowly becoming extinct, which scares me to death to be honest. Cinemas, supermarkets, etc. are offering special cashiers that only allow payments with cards. Credit Cards are rather rare in the Netherlands, everybody is using debit cards. Credit Cards are almost never accepted, except at some restaurants, most hotels and most gas stations.
Other than changing planes, the last time I was in The Netherlands was in 2010, when I was stranded in Amsterdam thanks to the ash cloud (after flights re-started, I was able to get back from the US to Schiphol, but the onward short-hauls to England still weren't running again). I therefore had to make my way to the Ijmuiden ferry terminal and catch the boat to Newcastle (KLM were unable to tell me when they'd be able to get me home, so it was either that or stay in Amsterdam indefinitely): I had two debit and one credit cards with me. Both the debit cards were rejected! Thankfully they did accept the credit card (albeit with a massive fee, a currency conversion charge and a lousy euro-pound exchange rate), but by that point I was beyond caring. Having just made it half way round the world it would have been ironic to have been stranded in Amsterdam because of an electronic payment problem.
I suspect that in the UK credit cards are used a lot more, because it is illegal to charge a card fee for most transactions (plane tickets and hotel bookings being the main exception). So at the supermarket, petrol station etc. you don't get charged for paying by credit card. I prefer to pay by credit card for two reasons. 1 - if you pay by debit card, the money is gone from your bank account, and so if a mistake is made (e.g. the wrong amount is taken), you're left trying to recover your money back from the seller. With a credit card, you haven't actually paid for it yet, and so you're in a stronger negotiating position with the card issuer. 2 - Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the card issuer is liable if something you paid for isn't delivered on all transactions over £100. So if I buy a plane ticket with my credit card and the airline goes bust after the transaction but before the day of the flight, the credit card issuer has to refund the cost of the ticket.
For these reasons I pay for things by credit card wherever possible, and then just pay the whole balance off at the end of the month.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 05-19-2013 05:57 PM
International payments with debit cards is always an interesting thing... The most commonly accepted international debit service in Europe is Maestro (it is part of MasterCard and it used to be called Switch in the UK if I remember correctly). Stuff like Visa Electron is not (yet) widely accepted.
If your card features the Maestro logo and the merchant accepts Maestro, it should just work. I usually don't have any problems with it in the UK. Unfortunately, there are still quite some merchants that don't accept international debit card payments, probably because they're usually more expensive for the merchant.
Another blocking factor might be your own bank. Quite recently, banks around here decided to block all debit card transactions from outside the EU. The motivation for that was, as they call it, fraud prevention. Seemingly, skimmed debit cards were being used to get money from ATMs abroad. Instead of fixing their own fraud detection and improving security of their own systems, they decided to just cut the service. In case of my bank: if I wanted to have this service restored, I needed to go to one of their offices and effectively sign some kind of waiver that makes them responsible for nothing...
I don't know if there are laws in place for it, but in the Netherlands it is not common to ask the buyer an up-charge for payments via debit cards, even not international payments via Maestro, but for payments with credit cards it is quite common.
In your case, you probably should have tried an ATM, it would probably have taken your debit card and the conversion rate would've been set by your bank and not your Credit Card company.
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