Mighty Bargain Hunter

Visa Debit Card Questions and Answers

December 23rd, 2008 | by mbhunter |

You may have noticed the Visa logo on the right sidebar, and thought to yourself, “Hmmmm … I wonder if Visa is a sponsor on Mighty Bargain Hunter?”  Well, if you did indeed think that, you’d be correct!

Visa is enlisting the help of several personal finance bloggers to get the word out regarding their debit card program.  As a manager of a blog carnival on debt reduction, I’ve seen good stories from people who have foregone their credit cards for the somewhat more restrictive cash flow of a debit card.  And now that credit is harder to get than it once was, debit cards will become the norm for more people.

As part of this campaign we had the opportunity to ask our own questions of the folks at Visa about issues relating to debit cards.  I’ll post some of the questions (and Visa’s answers) now, and post some more in the future.

Question:  Some merchants treat a debit card purchase as they would a personal check or cash, so when you make a return you might get store credit instead of cash back. Is there anything a customer can do to fight this?

Visa’s Response:  For your protection, Visa does not permit cash back refunds for any credit or debit transaction.  By issuing credits, a merchant is protecting you from individuals who might fraudulently make a purchase on your card and then return the merchandise for cash.  In addition, merchants may establish their own return policies to include store credit only or exchanges among other options.  So be sure to understand the store’s return policy before making a purchase.

My Comments:  I had noticed this before, but I didn’t realize that the no-cash policy was a Visa policy rather than simply the store wanting to keep the money in-store (which of course would be good from the merchant’s perspective).  It does bear repeating that it’s wise to understand a store’s return policy before buying.

Question:  Many credit cards help their customers resolve disputes with merchants. Will I get the same assistance as using a debit card?

Visa’s Response:  Visa debit cards have the same protections and benefits as Visa credit cards, which means you can dispute payment for your purchases with your financial institution if you are unable to resolve the dispute directly with the merchant – a benefit that neither checks nor cash offer.  You may dispute a Visa debit or credit transaction, regardless of dollar amount, for a variety of reasons including: the merchant was unwilling to provide services, shipped merchandise was not received, merchandise was received damaged or defective, and merchant failed to provide goods or services that were described on the documentation you received at the time of purchase.

My Comments:  The protections that debit cards afford were more than I had previously thought.  It’s nice to know that there is a similar amount of recourse available for debit card transactions as well as credit card transactions.

Questions tagged credit-card at Cash Commons:

• Anybody have sucesss with 0% Balance Transfers on Credit Cards?
• When entering credit card information on a website, does the billing address have to be correct?
• Two of my credit cards got hit with fraudulent charges the same day. What gives?