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Paying cash for tix



 
 
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  #11  
Old March 30th, 2004, 12:05 PM
Joe Momma
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Default Paying cash for tix


"nobody" wrote in message

Eric Toline wrote:
If your debit card has a Visa or Mastercard logo on it you can use just
like a credit card. You should check with your bank about getting a
debit card with a Visa or MC tie in.


Visa advertises on USA TV that its Visa Check card can be use ANYWHERE the
VISA logo is displayed.

However, it seems that for the last couple of years, some visa issuing

banks
have placed restrictions on merchants' accepting foreign cards or those

check cards.

If you have a Visa check card and some merchant does not accept it, you

should
contact Visa Intl or your own credi card issuer to complain.

If VISA tolerates this, then someone needs to take them to court for false

advertising.

Actually, a group of retailers including WalMart had a huge lawsuit against
Mastercard and VISA for making them take debit cards as well as credit
cards, even though the fees for debit cards with their logos were much
higher. Per the terms of the settlement, retailers are in fact not required
to take VISA or MC debit cards if they don't want to.


  #13  
Old March 30th, 2004, 03:22 PM
freeda
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Default Paying cash for tix

"nobody" wrote in message
...
Eric Toline wrote:
If your debit card has a Visa or Mastercard logo on it you can use just
like a credit card. You should check with your bank about getting a
debit card with a Visa or MC tie in.


Visa advertises on USA TV that its Visa Check card can be use ANYWHERE the
VISA logo is displayed.

However, it seems that for the last couple of years, some visa issuing

banks
have placed restrictions on merchants' accepting foreign cards or those

check cards.

If you have a Visa check card and some merchant does not accept it, you

should
contact Visa Intl or your own credi card issuer to complain.

If VISA tolerates this, then someone needs to take them to court for false

advertising.

IIRC, Debit cards in the UK (Not sure about the US) have a fixed fee per
transaction, around 45p, credit cards are a percentage ranging from around
1% to 4 %. Therefore for transactions of a low value, it is more profitable
for the retailer to accept payment by credit card.


  #14  
Old March 30th, 2004, 06:10 PM
mtravelkay
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Default Paying cash for tix

freeda wrote:

IIRC, Debit cards in the UK (Not sure about the US) have a fixed fee per
transaction, around 45p, credit cards are a percentage ranging from around
1% to 4 %. Therefore for transactions of a low value, it is more profitable
for the retailer to accept payment by credit card.


Even at 1 percent for credit cards, it would seem that for most tickets
bought on Expedia, it would be cheaper for them to pay the 45p debit
carc fee. A 100 GBP ticket would result in a 1-4 GBP charge for credit
cards, and only a 45p charge for debit cards.

  #15  
Old March 30th, 2004, 10:03 PM
nobody
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Default Paying cash for tix

freeda wrote:
IIRC, Debit cards in the UK (Not sure about the US) have a fixed fee per
transaction, around 45p, credit cards are a percentage ranging from around
1% to 4 %. Therefore for transactions of a low value, it is more profitable
for the retailer to accept payment by credit card.


There are no "real" nationwide debit cads in the USA like in other countries.
So VISA and mastercard concucted some hybrid credit cards handled by
VISA/mastercard. Instead of the issuing bank collecting the transactions until
end of month at which point you get a bill, they deduct transactions from your
checking account as they arrive (thus you have no credit on the card).

This is quite different from real debit card system where the transaction is
done with your ATM card and PIN and there is a single nationwide network to
switch transactions. (merchant at bank A gets the money deposited in his
account right away, and customer from bank B gets monety deducted from his
account right away, and bank B sends money to bank A to cover transactions for
that day). Also, with a rela debit card, you have choice of which account to
use for each transaction. Not so for the hybrid credit cards since the
machines don't prompt you for the account.

Personally, I do not understand why VISA/Mastercard would charge different
fees for their hybrid cards. It would have been a major advantage of their
cards were handled at the merchant exactly like credit cards: they would have
been accepted like theyr ads pretend: everywhere the VISA logo appears WORLDWIDE.

Seems to me that those hybrid cards are being cannabalised by being rendered
unusable at more and more places. If Airlines stop accepting these hybrid
cards, then what good are they ?
  #16  
Old March 30th, 2004, 10:07 PM
nobody
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Default Paying cash for tix

mtravelkay wrote:
Even at 1 percent for credit cards, it would seem that for most tickets
bought on Expedia, it would be cheaper for them to pay the 45p debit
carc fee. A 100 GBP ticket would result in a 1-4 GBP charge for credit
cards, and only a 45p charge for debit cards.


Real debit cards are not usable on internet. Requires physical presence of
card and entry of PIN, since they enable ATM like transactions live on your
accounts. (and on those of merchant).
Merchant could capture your card number and PIN, magnetically encode a card
and then go to the nearest ATM and perform any transaction you can perform.
  #17  
Old March 31st, 2004, 01:36 AM
Steve
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Default Paying cash for tix


"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


  #18  
Old March 31st, 2004, 02:09 AM
Scott
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Posts: n/a
Default Paying cash for tix

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:36:20 GMT, "Steve"
wrote:


"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?


Bank of America.

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.


I would have preferred to use a credit card, but the limit wasn't
enough and my Credit Union won't increase it. I'm thinking of getting
rid of that card and getting one from elsewhere.

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.


IIRC, Expedia's message was ambiguous. It didn't give me anby idea
what was wrong. I called and they said they don't except debit cards.
[see below]

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.


I actually suspect this is the reason. SAS mention something about it
before telling me no debit cards. The tickets for the whole family
came to about $4,700. I plan to contact the bank about the limit
soon.

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


I thought that the number itself identifies the card. Credit cards
have certain numb ers, while debit cards have a different set of
numbers. like 4 = Visa and 5 = Mastercard. That's what I think but
could be wrong.

Thanks,
scott
  #19  
Old March 31st, 2004, 02:12 AM
mtravelkay
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Posts: n/a
Default Paying cash for tix

Scott wrote:

I thought that the number itself identifies the card. Credit cards
have certain numb ers, while debit cards have a different set of
numbers. like 4 = Visa and 5 = Mastercard. That's what I think but
could be wrong.


My regular visa and my visa checkcard both start with 4

  #20  
Old March 31st, 2004, 04:05 AM
nobody
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Default Paying cash for tix

Steve wrote:
How much was the ticket you tried purchasing? Reason I ask is most debit
cards have a daily spending limit on them.


Then the excuse from the TA/airline should be "sorry sir, but the transaction
was declined". And when speaking with a human, they should just mention that
this often happens with debit cards due to lower daily spending limits instead
of stating that they refuse to accept such cards.

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,


Large outfits, especially internet sites which capture your credit card
information can easily apply some logic to validate a vard either by obtaining
list of BINs corresponding to debit cards, or perhaps even by having their own
bank block debit card transactions right away.
 




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