Those who have eaten out with me most often at Purdue (unfortunately) constitute 0% of this readership, but even my hometown friends probably know my affinity for paying in cash. They certainly know my mantra of "I don't believe in credit" whereby I don't mean that I don't believe in the concept (I have a brain, I know how it works: legalized usury) but rather that I don't believe it serves any merit or any need in my life, be that day-to-day or long-term. Day-to-day expenses I pay upfront in cash and long-term expenses I pay via loans and checks which are then paid off either by smaller checks or in cash. Whenever I don't have enough cash on hand for small purchases (like a meal or a book or a CD), I whip out my handy-dandy debit card and voilà! I thereby bypass credit completely and (very probably) have a poor credit report because of it. Oh well.
Starting around late 2006 / early 2007, I quit using my debit card as a debit card and began to use it as a credit card despite Chase's push to get people to use debit cards by giving them "Visa Check points." I did this at the behest of my father and was encouraged by talks with Jennifer. (Jennifer's identity theft situation happened around 2005 iirc.) Ever since then, I've tried to abstain from ever using my debit card as a debit card because whenever you do you have to punch in your PIN and by doing so you potentially enable a shady cashier to steal chump change from (under the radar) or liquidate (quite "over" the radar) your bank account.
So anyway, here's the long and the short of it:
- IUSM e-mails me saying, "We switched lenders. You need to sign new paperwork. Until then, no money for you. But it's sitting right here in our vault."
- I go to the bank to see just exactly how much I do have. I have a little under $1000 left in my account. Better than I'd feared, worse than I had hoped.
- I fill out said paperwork. I expect that IUSM should see it tomorrow and I should have my money come Wednesday.
- I have $90 in my wallet. I figure this is good enough for the purchases I need to make at Wal-Mart tonight.
- I purchase a CD and a DS game that cost me $60 in electronics (which I pay back there).
- When I check out, my new damage comes to $40 -- ten more than I have in my wallet.
Here's where the real story begins ...
- I use my debit card as a credit card. It goes through and says "Waiting for Cashier Verification."
- "Sir, it didn't take it" says the cashier. "O-kaaaay," I think to myself. Suspicious. Because I'm a paranoid kind of guy who finds anything like this suspicious. :p But I figure there's nothing she can do if I swipe it again except screw me out of $40 extra.
- "Sir, it still didn't take it." Again, it had said it was waiting for her verification for a split second.
- 3rd time, same cycle.
- "Sir," she says, "Why don't you try it as a debit?" My spidey sense flared up. "Sure," I instantaneously reasoned to myself, "she probably knows I'm using a debit card because as the cashier she can see that it's giving me the option of a choice (at the presumed DEBIT/CREDIT stage) ... but still, something's not right. Why is she suggesting it?"
- I tell her, "No."
- She says, "Well how do you plan on paying then?" She's getting shitty with me.
- I tell her, "You're going to try it as a Credit card again until it takes it." I'm being bossy.
- She takes my card from me (with permission).
- I warn her, "I don't want you to ring it up as a debit card." The customers behind me in line shift uncomfortably. Maybe they think I stole this card?
- She tries the card for the 4th time. No dice. I don't get to see anything.
- She tries it a 5th time and unctuously smiles at me. "There we go."
- I'm staring down at the touchpad and it's asking me for my PIN.
- "Ma'am, you've rung it up as a debit card!"
- "No, I haven't!" She looks shocked.
- "Yes, you did!" I half-shouted. "It's asking me for my PIN now!"
- "Sir, it does that."
- "FINE."
The customers' uncomfortable eyes have gotten to me and I decide I want to get out of here and do not appreciate being perceived as the burglar of my own card. I punch in my PIN. The cashier coldly packages my bags and without giving me any time to grab them begins to ring up the next customer and bag their belongings.
I went over to the manager's (or CMI?) station. Three CMI(?)s were chuckling, passing the time at 10:30pm on a Monday night, when over barges a short fat white guy in an orange t-shirt and baggy blue jeans almost falling off his ass: me. I complained about the situation and they all agreed it was sketchy but there wasn't anything they could do right now except a) file the report and b) look into seeing if the machine isn't to blame and the cashier is innocent after all. I agreed. One of the CMIs had a strong physical resemblance to Matt's best friend Phil and he seemed to genuinely sympathize -- when I said that I normally pay in cash precisely because of bullshit like this he somberly voiced agreement. As if he too knows what it's like to have this identity theft bullshit happen. Happened to my parents, happened to Jennifer, and more than one time I've been afraid it was happening to me but it didn't in the end -- although two of those times it's because I changed bank cards within the week.
I'm going to the bank tomorrow. I'm sad to say goodbye to my beloved bank card with an expiration date of "10/10" (so fun to type into Amazon-like websites! :( ) but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Especially when tens of thousands of dollars are on their way for a temporary-but-important stay.
Clarifications Section
- yes, I have shopped at this Wal-Mart many times and never had any card-related problems
- yes, I have used my debit card as a credit card at this Wal-Mart before (as recently as last week, as I had to inform the CMI who raised this argument)
- as mentioned before, I opt to pay in cash normally but when pressed I use this debit card as a credit card instead
7 comments:
Heh, I'm the exact opposite. I never, ever carry cash on my person. It's just too dangerous and inconvenient when I can just use my bank card. I usually use the "debit" option as well, because I don't want to have holds placed on my account. Using the debit option adds the item to my transaction list immediately.
Also, I always use the self-checkout. Why anyone would ever want to actually go into a line to be checked out is beyond my ability to comprehend. Why wait for some overworked and underpaid clerk to ring me up when I can do it ten times faster and control the payment process myself? It just doesn't make sense.
Self-checkout doesn't exist at this particular Wal-Mart. (Before other Purdue readers pipe up, listen to me, it doesn't. Yes, I agree, the one on 52 does. This one only has four Express lanes on the far left, four Express lanes on the far right, and normal lanes all in between. I know because I actually walked all the way from Aisle Express 1 to Aisle 27 (which is an unmarked but de facto Express #8 if we're still numbering up from left to right).
I always use Self-Checkout at Kroger except when I can't, which is after either 11pm or 12am, I forget. (They shut it down because nobody wants to sit at the Self-Checkout cashier's lane all by themselves. They'd rather sit at the two middle aisles that sandwich the cigarette area ... our Kroger is weird like that. I've NEVER seen cigarettes sold at their own special aisle in the middle of the other aisles. It's almost ALWAYS at any other store behind a walled-off countertop along with the lotto tickets.)
I'm much less worried about somebody stealing my wallet with $200 in it than I am about him stealing my debit card. Debit cards can be easily broken because PIN's are all 4 characters long (OUTDATED, OUTDATED, OUTDATED encryption) so all you need is the magnetic strip and whammo you're off to the races. If you carry your Debit Card with you at all in the first place, Blaise, you're essentially carrying the contents of your checking account (to a limit). A limit far exceeding the $100-$200 I usually keep in my wallet.
Putting the card security arguments to the side, though, I still think A is better than B:
a) you are mugged and your wallet's $200 are stolen
b) you are screwed over by a mom-and-pop cashier (e.g. Chinese restaurant) or by a shady chain store (like a Wal-Mart cashier and supervisor working in cahoots) who decides to have you run your card as credit first (getting the full 16-digit number into the computer), then tells you it didn't work and wants you to try the PIN (thus obtaining that), and who then hands it off digitally to the supervisor who goes into a backroom, posts it on an IRC channel in exchange for payment, and there goes your bank account, off to Nigeria!
As far as I know, there's no way a standard cashier or even a supervisor would ever be able to glean such information from the store's computer database. In fact, it is very doubtful that the store's own computers retain any credit or debit card numbers in the first place. Furthermore, no cash register I have ever seen or used displays credit/PIN numbers to the cashier.
If my debit card is stolen, I can call and have it canceled within minutes.
(Yes, I carry my debit card in my wallet at all times...)
The only way a clerk can get your credit info is if they run it through a secondary scanner (PROTIP: This almost always happens only at gas stations). Keep an eye on your card if they need to scan it - they have zero access to your credit card number through the POS terminal, nor through the register controllers in the counting offices (trust me i've worked with both). Always be aware of the device your card goes through, and there's no worries.
Right before we left Albuquerque, a scam was revealed. Someone had attached secondary readers to some Redbox machines and was harvesting card information. They attached it underneath the normal reader to make a swipe path about a foot long. Use common sense and realize you don't need to swipe a whole foot to read the card. I'd apply this to the people of Albuquerque, but common sense isn't really part of their culture. Neither is just plain intelligence.
When the PIN pad comes up, usually you can hit "Cancel" then it asks you if you want to ring it up as credit. This happens to me at Target and Jewel (Chicagoland's Marsh) all the time.
Also, you should consider getting a real credit card so you don't have this problem, and/or getting Chase's Leisure Rewards program. You pay $25 for it but you get 3 points per dollar on all credit purchases. You can get Amazon.com gift certificates with your points; I've already gotten $150 in gift certificates this year, and the year's only 2/3 over, so I've made $125 just by paying for cable, electric, gas, food etc.! Pretty sweet. Or get an Amazon.com credit card (which is advertised all over their website) -- you get $30 off your first Amazon purchase with it, and 3 points per dollar spent at Amazon (1 point per dollar spent elsewhere), and every 1000 points you get a $25 Amazon gift card.
Also you don't have to worry about credit cards being "usury" if you just pay them off every month. You really ought to get a credit card, as having a good credit report will help you big time when you want to buy a house.
But it is generally a good idea to pay cash for all non-essentials. I heard this advice from someone giving tips on how to save money in a newspaper column; I think it's a good idea because, as the columnist said, it makes you really visualize exactly how much money you are spending on this thing you don't really need.
You know i've never had a problem with overspending. XD
If i thought about the money spent on things I didn't need, I wouldn't have anything I want.
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