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Comment by chasil | Hacker News Reader

There is also a fee from the credit providers, which I believe is 3% of the transaction.

This fee is avoided with cash.

In my country, pretty much everything is debit. A debit transaction costs maximum about €0,25 over here. This would've been about 0,1% of the total transaction. A bank transfer would've been free. Meanwhile, VAT would've been 21% and income tax probably close to 50%.

So I doubt the transaction fee is relevant at all in my garage's consideration to offer me a 'discount'. This nearly doubles his net income and saves me 21% in VAT, just because it's off the books.

In the U.S., a separate credit card at a different institution is very wise.

When using a debit card, holds placed for funds (i.e. hotel incidentals) impact real cash in your account.

When using a credit card, these holds impact your credit line, not your actual funds.

I avoid using my debit card whenever possible, because it protects my assets more securely.

Debit is the standard in my country for pretty much everything... Holds aren't actually common and even most hotels ask you to pay the room in advance for short stays. It's a very different world and something like credit card debt isn't as prevalent here.

Disputing a charge on a credit card is also a very different experience from using debit.

"In a credit card dispute, the credit card issuer may issue a chargeback, which means that the disputed funds are taken from your merchant account and returned to the cardholder. With debit card disputes, the disputed funds are typically frozen in the cardholder's account until the dispute is resolved. This means that you may experience a cash flow impact with credit card disputes, while debit card disputes may have a more immediate impact on the customer's access to their funds."

https://www.chargeflow.io/blog/credit-card-dispute-vs-debit-...

Yeah, debit disputes hardly every happen. Debit over here is only used with a card present that has a chip. Any transaction over €25 (I think) requires a code. Skimming is virtually non existent and 'card not present' debit transactions don't exist.

Like I said, it's a very different world when it comes to payments over here. Apps like Cash App of Venmo are also don't really exist, for example, because banks already provide similar functionality in their apps without transaction fees.

That Vat . We are in the same place.

Only if you’re keeping the cash and not banking it. Banks charge businesses handling fees for cash.

[not to mention fees on the other end - a huge percentage on most ATM withdrawals].

Card Present fees are generally lower (1.5%) than Card-Not-Present fees (3%+)

Here's some core-fee details: https://gravitypayments.com/support-library/card-brand-fees/

And Gravity's general fee range here: https://www.cardpaymentoptions.com/credit-card-processors/gr...

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