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Comment by bobwaycott | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely this. I'm so sick of all the damn prompts when using a card.

Donate?! WTF, go away. I want to swipe and go, damnit. I didn't come to your establishment to take part in your charity drive.

Debit? Credit? WTF, can't you tell?!

Is this the correct amount? Shit, I don't know. Did the computer add correctly? Is this a bartering interface, where I get to say "NO", and make a counteroffer? No? Then why the hell are you asking me when I don't have a real alternative choice to make?

My personal supreme pet peeve is going to a gas pump, pressing the credit button at the pump (which has both credit and debit buttons), then being asked if the credit card I just swiped is in fact a debit card.

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They really want you to use the debit card portion of your card. I believe it involves the retailer paying lower fees. It's why every terminal is trying to funnel us into it, and doesn't have an obvious way to choose credit half the time.

Yeah, I get that. But 100% of the time, I'm swiping a credit card—so there is no debit portion. And I can't believe they don't know this, and still prompt to choose credit vs debit.

> Debit? Credit? WTF, can't you tell?!

No, they can't tell when the same card can be processed in both ways. Just for fun, check out your bank's debit card fraud protection details - odds are you're much better protected if you run your debit card as a credit card (i.e. no PIN, but a signature), that way visa/MC takes on the fraud risk.

Interesting. Are you sure about this? I typically only use a credit card. They can't tell there's no debit capability?

Also, on some rare occasions when I use my debit card, the PIN entry pops up without prompting. If I don't trust the place or don't want to divulge my PIN to prying eyes, I have to hit a cancel button to process as credit. I've never seen a PIN prompt show up when swiping my credit card. If they can't tell, how does the terminal prompt for PIN only when a debit card is swiped?

Come on, you know why it asks you if it's the correct amount. There are plenty of instances when it is not (item is mistagged, scanned twice, etc.)

I have never once used that prompt to catch or respond to an error. It gives so little actionable information. That's what watching the display that totals up your scanned purchases is for. Sure, I guess some people might use that screen as their method for catching an error, but it should be caught before you're given a number and asked if its correct.

Why I think that screen is there is to shield a merchant from someone coming back after the purchase to complain. And I doubt any merchant would use that confirmation to defend an error and risk losing a customer. Which, to me, makes it even more useless.

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