Forum Moderators: buckworks
Having never owned a DC, I wonder whether some businesses (online or B/M) accept credit cards but not debit cards?
Should we mention--or perhaps even stress-- that we accept both?
Nobody is going to not buy because you say you do take DC - but you may if you don't say so.
Keep it clear and simple.
I haven't checked with our staff that deals with phone orders from our website, but I don't recall any customers requesting to use a debit card. Probably doesn't occur to most people that it is an option.
Personally, I do prefer to use my debit card for all the (off-line) purchases I make. Interesting ...
From the customer's point of view it is always better to use a credit card, since you get the very generous chargeback terms, and also are in a much better position if your card is compromised.
With the terms of our merchant account, for high value, low margin goods, a debit card is much better since there's a flat fee rather than a percentage - a transaction for £1000 would cost us nearly £20 in fees on a credit card, I think it's 25p on a debit card (maybe this is different if you use an online payment gateway, I'm not sure). The Disties who we buy from with a card rather than having an account with always add a 2% fee on CC purchases, so we always use Visa Delta for these.
We take debit cards without mentioning it all the time. Once in a while a customer will ask if we do but most just assume that they are interchangable with credit cards. We are in the U.S.
I haven't checked with our staff that deals with phone orders from our website, but I don't recall any customers requesting to use a debit card. Probably doesn't occur to most people that it is an option....
You would probably never know it if they DID use a debit card.
Since nearly all debit cards are Visa or Mastercard, it would show up as a normal transaction.
I have not had a credit card for years, been using my VISA debit card since 1998 and have never had any problems spending it just like a regular CC.
A U.S. Federal Reserve study (available on the web) reports that DCs are popular among all demographic segments. I had assumed that they would be far more popular among the young and the less affluent. But even affluent elderly commonly use them.
They do seem to be especially popular among women, blacks and Hispanics, and families with kids.
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Do some debit card users assume a site doesn't accept debit cards if the sites mentions only CCs? That's a important question.
Our site, like most, makes no mention of debit cards, though we show MC/VISA/Discover/AMEX logos. Asking our CS people, I was told that we've never had a single inquiry from a customer on the subject. At worst the problem must be minor.
But considering the huge and growing numbers of DC shoppers, I think it's time to specifically mention debit cards on our site. The only downside to encouraging DCs is that we pay a tiny bit more to process them.
Also some companies do a split rate for debit cards - sometimes 10 base points cheaper than the normal credit card transaction. You might ask your merchant account provider if you think it might be worth your ROI
-Corey
On the page, I basically explain that we take any card that displays the Visa or MasterCard logo on it and usually that clears up any type of confusion
The aspect of this thread that caught my attention was the potential to offer customers a "new" convenient payment method that might not be offered by my on-line competitors.
There are some debit cards that still do not have the Visa / MasterCard logo on it - so make sure you specify that.
Why more clutter?
I hate clutter. But why state that you take credit cards-- and make no mention of debit cards-- when debit cards are now more common and growing at 20% a year? Not much clutter anyway to say. "We accept major credit cards and debit cards."
G lists the phrase "credit cards and debit cards" 175,000 times, but "debit cards and credit cards" comes up only 23,000 times. I don't think many retailers realize how the landscape has changed.
One thing that appeals to me it that by perhaps emphasizing that a site takes debit cards it implies that some competitive sites might not.
A huge "WE NOW TAKE DEBIT CARDS!" banner on the front page might make an interesting A/B test! Or how about "No Additional Charge For Using Your Debit Card."
I had assumed that they would be far more popular among the young and the less affluent. But even affluent elderly commonly use them.
Hmmm. I would have expected the opposite. I thought rich people spend cash and poor people pay interest.
Instead of all of this debit card - credit card stuff, it seems easier to just say "I take Visa." My debit card has a Visa logo on it, so I know what them means.
When people talk about debit cards, I'm thinking I need to enter a pin number. I'm pretty sure I'd rather not do that on the internet. Sure, a brick and mortar merchant could record it and duplicate my card, but they wouldn't do it nearly as well as the internet techie crowd.
Having never owned a DC, I wonder whether some businesses (online or B/M) accept credit cards but not debit cards?
Many accept only credit cards. There's been a push to accept debit cards (and pin numbers) because of the fees for the business, I think. If you accept Visa, then you accept a debit card Visa. I don't think anyone accepts Visa credit cards and rejects anything with a Visa logo on it.
Didn't see any massive jump because of this though. But one person was thinking enough about to get confused, so some of your customers may think there's an important difference.
(I always use debit cards whatever I see - I guess the payment will refuse if there's something wrong)
Debit cards like the above will not work on internet charges unless it is approved by the bank.
If I was to get a debit card with only the bank on it get another bank they are pretty much worthless but in your community.
Debit cards are treated just like cc's no difference none.
Only difference in retail stores is they presented and slid through the processor and the retail stores aren't charged the processing fees as a credit card is.
Hence the reason they ask is this a debit/credit card saves them buckets of processing fees if they are walmart etc.
You can as well say credit and use it that way just as easy.
I think perhaps the first time I used it to order online I might have wondered whether or not it would work - but that was a long time ago.
I'd think debit cards would make transactions at least somewhat more secure. The card or numbers could still be stolen, but if the transaction is for more than is available in the bank account the order will be refused, and many (most, AFAIK) have a daily dollar limit. When I've bought international plane tickets, for example, I've had to ask the credit union (in person) to waive the limit or the card would have been refused online.
From running dozens of AB split tests over the last year I know that there are very few results you can predict, so you just need to test it.
