"Scott" wrote in message
...
SAS and Expedia both said no to my debit card adorned with a Visa
logo.

Interesting; is it issued from a major bank? I've heard of MasterCard debit
cards being denied at some merchants (i.e. Walmart) since the big lawsuit
which involved Walmart (and other retail outlets) vs MasterCard & Visa, but
haven't heard this with respect to Visa debit cards.

When using Expedia, I typically use a Credit Card as I want the extra
protection, but when using airline websites, such as nwa.com, I use my Visa
debit card all the time and have no problems. In fact, the debit card I
normally use is a Northwest WorldPerks "debit" Visa card which earns mileage
(issued by US Bank). However, I won't use it many places on the net other
than reliable merchants and of course nwa.com. Any other site, I'll use a
credit card for the added protection.

Interesting that Expedia isn't accepting debit cards; what happened when you
put your Visa card # in? Did it just decline the transaction or give you an
error message? I'm wondering if it's their actual policy, or if something
happened where it didn't like your card and then Expedia just used the "we
don't take debit cards" as an excuse.

How much was the ticket you tried purchasing? Reason I ask is most debit
cards have a daily spending limit on them. If you try to purchase something
expensive (above the spending limit) or make many purchases in one day which
exceed the limit, it will decline you.. despite your card being good and you
having sufficient funds in your account. To get around this you can have
your bank raise the daily spending limit on the debit card. The "average"
daily spending limit provided to a customer varies depending upon financial
institution -- it can be as low as $500 or as high as $3000. Typically to
have a daily limit above $3,000, one must request it. The average daily
limit is typically $1,000. The spending limit is an anti-fraud measure,
but it can always be raised if too low. The limit is similar to how you
can only take out so much money from an ATM in a 24 hour period (a lot of
banks cap it at $500 daily).. again, this can be lifted/increased upon
request.. but $500 daily is usually enough for the average person.

As far as merchants who are not honoring debit cards, I'm not sure how smart
their systems are when they try running a card, but I've seen (and actually
have) a Visa debit card which doesn't say "debit" or "check card" anywhere
on it from a small local bank. It is a debit card connected to a checking
account, but it just has the bank name on it and the Visa logo... whereas
most banks have "Debit Card" or "Check Card" embossed or printed on the card
somewhere so one can visually see the difference between a debit or a credit
card.

Steve