Why ask if card is debit or credit?

[Thad Smith]

When I swipe my credit card at the gasoline pump, many require that I
answer whether it is a credit or debit card before filling. This is
dumb! If it makes a difference to the merchant, then the information
should be written on the card and automatically obtained rather than
requiring the customer to answer. What happens if I answer incorrectly?

This is admittedly a minor issue, but one that causes wasted time to a
lot of people.

Can anyone shed some light on why this happens or, better yet, figure
out how to eliminate this time waster?

[creativechaos]

Remember that if you use your debit card and your account is overdrawn, then
you will be charge an overdraft fee of $30 or more...

A word to the wise....

Post by Thad Smith
When I swipe my credit card at the gasoline pump, many require that I
answer whether it is a credit or debit card before filling. This is
dumb! If it makes a difference to the merchant, then the information
should be written on the card and automatically obtained rather than
requiring the customer to answer. What happens if I answer incorrectly?
This is admittedly a minor issue, but one that causes wasted time to a
lot of people.
Can anyone shed some light on why this happens or, better yet, figure
out how to eliminate this time waster?

[Thad Smith]

Post by creativechaos

Post by Thad Smith
When I swipe my credit card at the gasoline pump, many require that I
answer whether it is a credit or debit card before filling. This is
dumb! If it makes a difference to the merchant, then the information
should be written on the card and automatically obtained rather than
requiring the customer to answer. What happens if I answer incorrectly?
This is admittedly a minor issue, but one that causes wasted time to a
lot of people.
Can anyone shed some light on why this happens or, better yet, figure
out how to eliminate this time waster?

Remember that if you use your debit card and your account is
overdrawn, then
you will be charge an overdraft fee of $30 or more...

OK, I'll remember. Actually, I always use a credit card. But my
question is why am I asked when I present the card to the gas pump? It
seems a waste of time.

[Jim Logajan]

Post by Thad Smith
OK, I'll remember. Actually, I always use a credit card. But my
question is why am I asked when I present the card to the gas pump?
It seems a waste of time.

I suspect it is because the gas pump can't read your mind, so doesn't know
which set of tradeoffs you are willing to accept. ;-)

Seriously though, there are often policy (and cost) differences between
using a card as a debit card and a card as a credit card. The gas pump
hasn't read your particular policy statement from your card issuer and
can't make that judgement call for you.

I believe the policy differences can be found printed in submolecular sized
printing on the last policy statement sent out by your bank. You may need a
scanning tunneling microscope to read it, though.

[Thad Smith]

Post by Jim Logajan

Post by Thad Smith
OK, I'll remember. Actually, I always use a credit card. But my
question is why am I asked when I present the card to the gas pump?
It seems a waste of time.

I suspect it is because the gas pump can't read your mind, so doesn't know
which set of tradeoffs you are willing to accept. ;-)

But it asks me /after/ I have already swiped my card. Can't it tell
from the card itself? If so, it should simply process as a credit or
debit card. If not, something is seriously wrong in the card number
encoding scheme.

Post by Jim Logajan
Seriously though, there are often policy (and cost) differences between
using a card as a debit card and a card as a credit card. The gas pump
hasn't read your particular policy statement from your card issuer and
can't make that judgement call for you.

I made the judgement call when I pulled the card out of my wallet and
put it in the slot. Are you saying that a single card could be used for
either credit or debit? If so, encode my credit card as a _credit_only_
card and stop wasting my time.

[Jim Logajan]

Post by Thad Smith
Are you saying that a single card could be used
for either credit or debit? If so, encode my credit card as a
_credit_only_ card and stop wasting my time.

Debit cards can now often be used interchangeably as either a debit card
(requiring entry of a PIN) or in many cases as a credit card (requiring a
signature). That appears to be the case if it has the Visa or Mastercard
logos on it.

The following Wikipedia entry may prove useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VISA_(credit_card)

(Specifically the paragraph "Features of the standard product.")

I suspect that the infrastructure and protocols currently in place would
take a while to retrofit to remove the annoyance you see at the gas pump.

[NC]

Post by Thad Smith
When I swipe my credit card at the gasoline pump, many
require that I answer whether it is a credit or debit
card before filling. This is dumb!

No it's not. Depending on whether card is debit or credit, the pump
may ask you for a different piece of authentication information (PIN
for a debit card, billing ZIP code for a credit card).

Post by Thad Smith
If it makes a difference to the merchant, then the
information should be written on the card and automatically
obtained rather than requiring the customer to answer.

But there are also the processor and the card issuer, to whom it
matters a great deal...

Post by Thad Smith
What happens if I answer incorrectly?

If the card is debit and you said it's credit, nothing. The payment
will still be processed; most debit cards can pretend to be credit.
If the card is credit and you said it's debit, your will need to use
your PIN number (which you may or may not have set up); plus, your
purchase may be recorded as a cash advance, and you will pay cash
advance APR on it rather than APR for purchases.

Post by Thad Smith
This is admittedly a minor issue, but one that causes wasted
time to a lot of people.

Welcome to the world of legacy systems! :)

Post by Thad Smith
Can anyone shed some light on why this happens

Basically, debit cards came onto the scene about 15 years later than
credit cards, so anything related to debit cards was added to already
operating processing systems as an afterthought.

Post by Thad Smith
or, better yet, figure out how to eliminate this time waster?

Why bother? I tell you that, and the next thing you will want to know
is, how to eliminate the "paper or plastic" time waster in the
supermarkets... :) Life's too short to worry about wasted time... :)

Cheers,
NC