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[misterqueue]

Just a note.. alt text changed from:

"I would not belong to any club that has Ray as a member"

to

"Ray can only name three Beatles"

We, too, are all about education

[Imperator Severn]

There's Volkswagen, Bailey, and uh... help me out here.

[MattFish]

There's Volkswagen, Bailey, and uh... help me out here.

Dung.

[side_show]

Also, I spent time trying to figure out what the check number (21038) was taken to mean.

How about it means 21,038 checks is a HELL OF A LOT OF CHECKS TO WRITE.  I've had a checking account for 10 years and I'm on seven hundred something.  I know Ray buys hell of more stuff than I do (he probably writes ten checks just for his Friday parties) and I'm not counting all the checking-account transactions I use my debit card for, but still.

He doesn't care what he's writing checks for.  He knows he's good for the money, so he'll write them.

Twenty-one thousand and thirty-eight times.

Oh, this reminds me.  My friend moved down to the States and tells me that in the U.S. hardly anyone uses their debit card in the way that we do in Canada.  Is this true?  Up here, checks are basically obsolete, I used to write one check a month for rent, but now that I have a mortgage that's automatically withdrawn, I wonder what I even need my checks for anymore.  Debit is neck and neck with cash as the preferred method of payment.  Everywhere accepts debit, except for true backwoods operations.  At this point, I only carry cash when my SO's grandma tapes a twenty in my birthday card.  Also, debit transactions are free if you have $500 or more in your account at most banks, so carrying cash is pretty pointless.

[AugustWest]

No that's the way it is here now.  Also, you can get cash off your debit card without a transaction fee at most larger stores.  

I still carry a checkbook with me.  The float is a wond'rous thing.

[miles]

At the store where I work, debit/credit is by far the preferred method of payment.  Checks are a very distant third, behind cash.  Now we electronically approve checks, and if it goes through, hand them back to the customer immediately, which pisses some of them off.

[AlohaDawg]

No that's the way it is here now.  Also, you can get cash off your debit card without a transaction fee at most larger stores.  

I still carry a checkbook with me.  The float is a wond'rous thing.

The Float is a lot harder to play than it used to be, though. I used to work the HELL out of the float in the early 90's but it's a lot tougher now.

[Imperator Severn]

If ray used a debit card online, he wouldn't get to sign it -=Ray=-



These things must be considered.

[CortJstr]

I don't use my debit card because it costs the merchant more to accept it, and if they accept regular credit cards they are forced to accept debit cards and pay the higher fees whether they want to or not. Also, there was that thing last year where some major stores such as Wal-Mart were triple charging people and if that had happened to me w/ my debit card then my rent check would've bounced.

My mom writes something like 50 checks a month. It's insane. We keep telling her that if you have a rewards credit card and never carry a balance using it makes a lot more sense but she can't break the habit. She even has a check book with a window to hold her license so the clerk can write down the info while she's filling out the register. She hates it when the clerk does the electronic thing and gives the check back.

What sucks is that banks are still allowed to use float against you. If I deposit a check today my bank can wait like 3 days to actually give me the money but debit the checks I write immediately. Fuck Check21.

[jough]

Cort: actually, it's the opposite.

Merchants LOVE to accept debit rather than credit cards, because there's no discount fee and they get their money right away rather than in a day or two.

Consumers should prefer credit because there's no fee to us (with debit there may or may not be a fee) and of course the money doesn't get taken from us right away.

I tend to use a Visa Check Card at most places as a Visa credit card.  The funds come out of my bank account, but I don't get charged a fee like I would with debit.

So I'm constantly trying to figure out if the current system I'm navigating uses "Cancel" or "OK" to skip the PIN entry screen to proceed.

[wombat]

My mom writes something like 50 checks a month. It's insane. We keep telling her that if you have a rewards credit card and never carry a balance using it makes a lot more sense but she can't break the habit. She even has a check book with a window to hold her license so the clerk can write down the info while she's filling out the register. She hates it when the clerk does the electronic thing and gives the check back.

I know she's your mom, Cort, but... people who write checks while other people are waiting in line behind them should be shot.

I had a hard day, I guess it's bringing out my inner Pat.

[Imperator Severn]

Debit is better than cash, that's for sure.

Not just because cash is impossible to recover, but because clerks are stupid.


A week ago I bought a cheeseburger, and the clerk couldn't figure out how much change to give me.  Ten dollars minus 6.27 (It was a half-pounder.).  So after he stared at the bar for upwards of thirty seconds, I said, "Seventy-three cents."  Then he just stared blankly at me, so I said, "Two quarters, two dimes, and three pennies."


So he gave me 83 cents.

[Bozack]

Today, at the hardware store, I was buying 90 degree braces to fix my IKEA bed. They were $2.75 each, and this store doesn't charge tax, oddly enough, or they already have it figured into the price. So I figure I'll be awesome and give her the $10 I had, plus two quarters, so she could give me back a fiver. I handed the ten and the two quarters to her, and she handed me a five and the same two quarters I had just given her. They hadn't even left her hand. I stared increduosly at them for a second before telling her that they were actually hers.

[acoxcae]

I use debit basically all the time - but I never (or rarely) use my Visa Check Card as a credit card, because I HATE the variable delay between the time of the transaction and the time that money is actually removed from my account.  Just recently I bought like $50 worth of drinks for friends at some fancy bar we were at, and it didn't even think about making an appearance at my bank until two weeks later.  I nearly bounced the rent check because I was missing $50 all of a sudden.  With Debit, by the time I get home from making the transaction, my bank's software knows what's happened.  Much better.

As a bit of an aside (apparently I'm feeling nostalgic today), does anyone know when it became impossible to just hand someone your card and get on with it?  I understand the benefits of the customer-driven credit card system (nobody forgets to return the card, enter the PIN and such without intervention...), but it seems like whenever I slip and hand someone my card they FREAK OUT like they can't touch it because it might have magnetic-stripe herpes.  I long for the day when the cashier at a store actually had to do something aside from drag my items across a special section of the counter and then glare at me while I transact business.

On the other hand, the self-checkouts at the grocery store are doing quite well.

[jough]

I use debit basically all the time - but I never (or rarely) use my Visa Check Card as a credit card, because I HATE the variable delay between the time of the transaction and the time that money is actually removed from my account.

Oh man, that's why I love it.  I can make a deposit today, and then spend money on that deposit even before the check clears.  It's like kiting but legal.

MAKE THE FLOAT WORK FOR YOU

Just recently I bought like $50 worth of drinks for friends at some fancy bar we were at, and it didn't even think about making an appearance at my bank until two weeks later.  I nearly bounced the rent check because I was missing $50 all of a sudden.

Yeah, I guess if you're too stupid or lazy to balance your own checkbook slash keep track of your own finances, then check cards probably aren't a good match.

As a bit of an aside (apparently I'm feeling nostalgic today), does anyone know when it became impossible to just hand someone your card and get on with it?

Oh man, I love the "Swipe Any Time" thing.  What I hate is when you go to somewhere like Best Buy that has the self-checkout card system and then they tell you to "Present Card to Cashier" anyway, so she can RE-SWIPE IT and then key in the three digit security code.  Why not just let her handle it from the get-go?  It's so annoying that I shop there less than I would otherwise.

Also, as a digression, one time the cashier must've mistyped the security code, so my card was declined.  Knowing full well that I had plenty of funds to buy the blank DVDs I was picking up I had her run it again, and then watched her intentionally mistype the number again so that it wouldn't be her fault.

Of course, I'm an asshole, so I made her get a manager and asked the manager to ring me out there.  There's no fuck*ng way I'm going to leave the store without my stuff just because the cashier was being obstinate.  I can out-obstinate anyone.

On the other hand, the self-checkouts at the grocery store are doing quite well.

Oh man, I hate these things so much.  There have been times where I went to the store while they still had checkout people on duty, and by the time I was done shopping for the week they'd all left and all they had was the stupid self-checkout and I had to leave my full cart there by the checkout lane and walk out.

Also, since they're so paranoid about people stealing from the self-checkout, they always have one or two people there to WATCH EVERYONE LIKE A HAWK but never actually help people check out.  One time for kicks I started banging cans and bottles against the bar code reader whenever it wouldn't read them right away, and I kept waiting for someone to come over and "help" me, but no.  

Also, the whole "you have to keep your bags on the scale until you're done, but there's only room for two bags on the scale so if you need more than that you've got to make five different transactions for the same food order" thing is idiocy.

Really, stores aren't saving themselves any money, the consumers aren't enjoying the process more, and by treating your customers like thieves you're more likely to have more of them steal from you simply DUE TO SPITE.