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Comment by kalleboo | Hacker News Reader

> Some consumers can't get a credit card. It's hard for consumers vulnerable to overspending & borrowing to avoid the card's expensive credit component.

Aren't debit and credit cards 100% interchangeable these days? I've for sure never had my MasterCard debit card rejected.

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Almost certain of it, some places even tack on a fee for using a credit card instead of a debit card.

However, consumer protections for a debit card are nowhere near as good. e.g. in the UK at least, if you experience fraud you have to wait for your bank to refund your account, whereas you don't experience any loss with a credit card. As such I avoid using debit unless the merchant charges for credit.

Guess what? 10 million American households are unbanked or underbanked.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbanked

I don't think those 10 million households are going to have their problems solved by bitcoin.

Maybe not in the next few years. But people who pay with cash because they aren't allowed to be in this country and don't want a bank account (some portion of the unbanked) might enjoy shopping in the digital world by using some "digital cash".

They can already shop in the digital world with prepaid Visa, Master Card or even AmEx cards. Going after people without bank accounts is big business.

Can they?

I tried to order something online with a prepaid debit card once and it was rejected. I then put in my CC and it worked fine.

Disclaimer: My experiences don't necessarily reflect others.

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