TigerWolfe
Forum Fanatic
- Oct 19, 2022
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If it's got the Mastercard function it can be run as credit or debit, but it's not actually a line of credit, it's just whatever's in your bank account.Really? That's interesting. My original experiences date back from a decade ago, so it could definitely mean things have changed since then. Glad it worked out that way now! I've seen the Mastercard logo on my new bank card, so I figured it would have been added since. I checked my bank application and as of today, I still don't have credit card functionality on my debit card. I do own a credit card from a different company though, so I never really sought out the functionality myself.
You are absolutely right. Debit cards do charge fees, just not at every payment transaction for the account holder. You're absolutely correct someone has to pay for the money transfer and in this case, the store owner / entrepreneur does it (aside from a one-time account fee to the account holder, I think). And like you pointed out, there are definitely creditcards that don't have the yearly fee nor the minimum spending budget. Maybe that's even becoming the norm and big parties like International Card Services are no longer the default.
Credit cards aren't nearly as devious as they were 20 years ago and most people can operate them quite successfully while staying out of (too much) debt. It helps you build a credit score, which is a bonus.
So that should work for sites that only accept credit card, the site doesn't care about there being a line of credit they care about the card being from a real institution, a debit card from yokel's bank and trust, may suddenly fall off the map and not have money. However one from a bank that's big enough to also work with visa/Mastercard is considered large/trustworthy enough to not have that be an issue.
So the card is still in practice just debiting from your account, but you can run it as credit in places that only accept that where the "line of credit/credit limit" is just whatever's in your bank.