Stop Paying for Gas with Your Debit Card | Hacker News Reader

Stop Paying for Gas with Your Debit Card

forbes.com

26 pointstodsac23 comments

Hy-Vee breach announced this week. I shop Hy-Vee several times a week and saw a $250 charge on my card on 8/20. Hard to believe it isn't from this breach.

Someone signed up for a Zelle account with my card. Managed to initiate a transfer. I had never heard of Zelle, but there's a 0% chance I'll ever use them now. Luckily my bank does not use them...

Stop using your debit card period. Use a credit card and pay it off monthly. Problem solved.

Don't support the credit card oligarchy. Only shop at places that are cash only or put the credit expense fee on the users, not the people paying cash.

> Don't support the credit card oligarchy.

I 100% agree. The problem is that the credit industry exists (obviously) to make money for creditors. Their profit comes from a.) vender fees (that often just result in higher product costs), b.) fees to people who aren't stable enough to pay their balances before fees kick in.

Either way, the credit industry introduces a middle man that a.) artificially inflates costs to goods and survices and b.) financially burdens those who can least afford it.

Sure, credit serves a purpose to bridge a financial gap, like say buying a house, but I go in to that loan agreement knowing how much I'm going to pay for that service. Credit cards, on the other hand are just shady societal life siphons.

Don't support the corrupt Federal Reserve. Only use the barter system.

Rich?! Rich Stallman is that you??

That way if you get ripped off it will be on you credit card instead of another account?

The logic here is bewildering to me... Why aren't they instead addressing how banks aren't covering debit card fraud properly, and how the cards and transaction system is flawed?

They're all cards, consumers pay for the services. It's companies that are at fault for not creating better protections.

With a CC, the money is taken away from your CC company, not your bank account first. So you won't have to deal with the potential cascade of overdrafts, bounced checks, etc.

Secondly, CC Cos because they're first in line to being on the hook, seem to be better at picking up fraud (I have no idea why). When my CCs have been comped, they notified us and shipped us new cards before we could have reasonably found out that anything was askew.

I get that, but it just seems like banks make up the rules as they go... I have full coverage on my debit card, actually a limo company stole money from me a few years back on my debit card and I got reimbursed immediately, but it seems like those policies can be changed any time and almost like banks want to trap you in an inconvenient situation. :/

I thought they changed to chip cards BECAUSE they were better at preventing fraud... Banks used to pay me 3% interest on my account, until a bank bought mine out and changed policies arbitrarily...

The more abstractions you have around your money, the better protected it is.

I may have missed something, but why specifically when paying for petrol? Surely the advice here should be to stop using debit entirely?

(Alternatively, choose to use cash now - or you won't have the choice in the future.)

Because American gas pumps still primarily use magstripe readers and thus skimmers are still a problem. Many new pumps are starting to get Apple/Android contactless payment, but I've found that most of the pumps that have the hardware don't actually have it enabled for whatever reason.

An AM/PM gas station in Bellevue, WA recently spent months tearing out tanks and putting new pumps in. “Sweet, I go by there every day, maybe the pumps will have NFC/Apple Pay.” NFC? The new pumps don’t even have chip readers. It is still mag stripe only. Words are inadequate.

Conversely, some Wawa convenience stores are only getting Tesla superchargers, no gas pumps (and Tesla automatically dings your CC on file for Supercharging). Interesting to see the dichotomy.

The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Apologies to Gibson.

Some gas stations are cash/debit only to avoid credit card interchange fees, and thus can have a slightly lower price than other gas stations.

Another reason: pre-auth will deduct up to $125 from your available balance, no matter how small the actual purchase is, which you won’t get back for a couple of days.

or just run your debit card as credit and don’t play with snakes?

It’s a lot harder to deal with fraud with a debit card vs a credit card. Better to never use the debit card, use a credit card for everything, and then pay off the credit card on time each month via ACH/bank transfer.

If you can, get only an ATM card for your checking account.

A lot of pumps support NFC/Apple Pay at the pump now. Also a great option instead of pulling a card out.

I’d always been taught that if I run a debit as credit, and the transaction occurs over the Visa/MC network, then it has all the same protections as a credit card when it comes to fraud/chargebacks.

Are you saying that is incorrect? That would be pretty concerning.

That's not what he is saying.

With debit you’re bprotected as a credit card. The main difference is when there’s a dispute, it’s your money that’s on hold instead of the banks, potentially for months.

When the number on the card itself is compromised, regardless of whether your transaction was credit or debit, future transactions by the thief will put your money at risk (possibly for months) rather than the bank's money.

Debit cards should be reserved for ATM use only. Not a perfect solution but unless you are going to swear off of ATMs as well, the best one can do in the US.

Or if you’re at ARCO in Oregon, you can avoid 35 cent undisclosed debit fees.

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