My reason for not using a "debit card" rather than a check/cheque is simple: I take savings over convenience. My bank charges $1 or $2 to process a debit card charge, and nothing to process a check (beyond the cost of printing which works out to about $.10 per check.) <start rant> I don't know the exact amount of the charge because I only used the debit card a few times, when I first set up my account. I was so surprised to see the charges on my next statement, I destroyed the card. I could see paying a 1% fee, but a fixed charge of a $1-2 is just way over the top. A 20-40% charge on a $5 purchase!??!?
<continue rant> It has always struck me as very odd that we bank customers are charged for those things which save banks money and reduce their workforce and increase their profit. Like Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) and debit cards in lie of checks. In a similar vein, in another life I play golf occasionally (never often enough). For most good courses close to a reasonable center of population, advance booking of a Start Time is essential. Over the last few years some courses have moved to on-line reservation systems. BUT they want to charge more. Excuse me?? You set up a system that eliminates many phone service charges, that drastically reduces the time your personnel work the phone trying to fit people into available time slots, that increases your throughput by making it more convenient for people to make the reservation, and then you want the customer to pay more?? The new classic oxymoron, giving serious challenge to "military intelligence" is "business ethics." <end rant> Stan "Carl Bowden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said > Subject: Re: OT: eBay tale of woe > > Same sort of situation here in Australia, cheques ... are a dying breed. ... > > One of the things I've found strange when visiting the US is that the country > that invented credit cards and the internet still use cheques so much. Can't > understand why. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
