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Comment by noodlesUK | Hacker News Reader

Ultimately the semantics of instant push payment transfers are pretty different from card purchases.

Chargebacks for instance are a key protection which I have made use of multiple times. There’s no such option available with bank transfers. The card networks are typically the ones who handle dispute arbitration and various other issues between merchants and card issuers/cardholders.

Those kinds of features mean that people are comfortable using their bank/credit cards, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be okay if someone steals the card or a merchant makes an error or defrauds them.

There are all sorts of protections available to merchants like card holds which make buying a hotel room much more seamless.

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>Chargebacks for instance are a key protection which I have made use of multiple times. There’s no such option available with bank transfers.

In case someone doesn't understand why this is the case:

Banks don't really care about your money.

Banks really care about their money.

When you buy something with a debit card, you are spending your money.

When you buy something with a credit card, you are spending the bank's money.

Yes, banks tout zero fraud liability with your debit charges just like credit charges; no, their enthusiasm is /dev/null compared to credit charges.

This is largely true, and it’s codified into law in some places (see s.75 in the UK), however I would say that the protections provided by most major banks on debit card purchases are actually pretty good. The chargeback process for most issuers is very similar or the same. You should use a credit card because you have stronger legal protections, but it’s not like most banks will screw you just for using a debit card.

Sepa direct debit has chargebacks.

Yes, but it’s only an 8 week window and there’s no dispute arbitration process, which is actually bad for merchants too.

Most merchants in the EU are not interested in partaking in a dispute arbitration process. You will find such disclaimers in the TOS of many european webshops, as the EU has laws in place that would permit arbitration.

If there is a dispute, it will typically end up in court.

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