> ii) that getting cash
> back with a debit card was a privelege and I should be happy to get
> anything because they are a store and not a bank. He then pointed me to
> an ATM machine and walked away.
>
The manager is correct in that attitude...
This is not necessarily good customer relations, but it is how the Debit
or Credit Card/ ATM game works.
-- getting cash back when you use your debit card is a "freebe" that costs
the store money. (The store pays for the transaction with the "switch.")
(The "switch" is probably the FED, but it might be MAC or PLUS or
CashStream, etc.)
However, when you withdraw cash from their ATM, that $2.00 surcharge goes
straight to the store's bottom line. (You pay for the transaction with the
switch AND pay a percentage to the folks who give the ATM floor space.)
So it beomes a big "win" for the store.
And the cash-back-limits are strickly a cash flow issue for the store.
If they have a lot of excess cash, it's a good way to get rid of it - they
get the electronic credit from the "switch."
I don't believe that the customers of the switch are REQUIRED to offer any
cash-back, but merely encouraged to do so... Unlike the merchants who
accept VISA and then ask for additional identification or information --
when they are contractually prohibited from doing so. They will be fined by
Visa or MC if you report them to VISA (or MC) corporate. [It is possible
that contracts renewed in the past year have changed this, but those more
than a year old contain the prohibition in their boiler plate. This is one
reason why "smart cards" are used in Europe and not in the US.]
--
www.tru64unix.compaq.com
www.tru64.org
comp.unix.tru64
T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill Senior Systems Administrator
Information Services and Computing (ISC) University of Pennsylvania
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.isc-net.upenn.edu/~magill/
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