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Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

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Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#221

Post by [deleted] »

jmkerr wrote: post #217
brazzy wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany here as well. I have never heard of event-based overdraft fees, only interest-based. Which makes this transaction reordering pointless

Because it's not true, check the largest consumer banks: https://www.postbank.de/dam/postbank/pdf/privatkunden/Postba... https://www.deutsche-bank.de/dam/deutschebank/de/shared/pdf/... https://www.commerzbank.de/portal/media/efw-dokumente/preisa... https://www.hypovereinsbank.de/content/dam/hypovereinsbank/s... https://www.ing.de/girokonto/konditionen/ https://www.diebank.de/content/dam/f0032-0/PDF_neu/preisaush... (…

[deleted]

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#222

Post by jon-wood »

8ytecoder wrote: post #157
NikolaNovak wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to re learn the lyrics to Oh Canada and sing them joyously and thankfully... Our banking system gets a lot of ire but dear Gawd.

It a uniquely American stupidity that somehow everyone just lives with. The concept of overdraft doesn’t even exist in normal consumer accounts anywhere else in the world. The first thing I do when I open an account here is to disable overdraft - but then you have to pay return cheque charges by whoever was trying to charge your account.

Overdrafts are very much a thing in the UK, most accounts allow it, but you have to request it in advance. In effect they work like a pre-approved loan, which at least when I was working badly paid jobs and needed food right up before payday was a very welcome feature.

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#223

Post by MereInterest »

bagels wrote: post #175
eyelidlessness wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh since I’m naming names. The bank before that, Wells Fargo, honored a check I wrote > 2 years earlier. Sure, I wrote it and I was good for it at the time. I forgot about it. Maybe I could’ve left that money in limbo but at a certain point I assumed my moderately wealthy aunt wasn’t gonna cash it. Well it doesn’t matter what I assumed, the law said the check was no longer valid. When Wells Fargo honored it and overd…

You got charged and convicted of a crime?

Not the OP, but having it on his record likely refers to his credit record, maintained by private agencies, not a conviction record.

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#224

Post by chrisseaton »

lottin wrote: post #212
chrisseaton wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why spend your own money when someone is willing to loan you money for free, will give you some of your money back, and will also protect you against consumer issues? You’re leaving money and protection on the table by not using them.

Because I don't want a loan, even if it's for free.

Well up to you but that’s irrational - it’s leaving money on the table and what’s more you’re actually paying for my free loan and my cash back and my protection and my free flights and not getting anything yourself, as I’m paying the same price for products as you.

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#225

Post by throaway46546 »

Lammy wrote: post #46
wetpaws wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why in the world wouldn't you want to do it.

My credit score goes down unless I carry some revolving balance.

For maximum FICO score you ideally want every card except one to report a $0 balance and one card to report a $1 balance (some issuers will forgive a balance of $1 so you might have to use $2). You do this by paying down the cards before the statement generates. Once the statement for the $1/$2 card generates you can then pay it off.There is no need to revolve a balance. In fact if you pull your credit reports it does not even show if you are revolving a balance. If you would like to see what data is in a credit report you can obtain a copy for free.

https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/get-my-free-cred...

If you are interested in how FICO scoring works there is a lot of information available on various forums. The best resource I have found is on https://creditboards.com/. The FICO algorithm is proprietary and they do not disclose it, but through experimentation people have managed to reverse engineer quite a bit of it.

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#226

Post by thrower123 »

Debit cards prey on poor people, who have been memed into thinking credit cards are dangerous.

There is no good reason to use debit over credit in the US if you have the option, but I constantly see advice from people who should know better arguing in favor of debit.

If someone steals your credit card and makes fraudulent purchases, your rent and heat and electricity bill checks aren't going to bounce while the bank is resolving the issue.

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#227

Post by capableweb »

clippablematt wrote: post #211
numair wrote: post #43

The beginning of this article is a fairy tale that ignores what used to be one of the biggest drivers of revenue for banks: overdraft fees. Maybe the HN crowd has never been in a situation where they were auto-billed into a negative balance, which then caused an overdraft fee that then further drove their balance into negative territory, but this was a weekly/monthly fiasco for millions of Americans. I was once in a…

Had five years or so of that awful cycle. It’s interesting when you meet people who haven’t experienced living under the brutality of the banking system. Overdraft, payday loans, high interest credit. They think it’s all fine. Fear of overdraft fees is a real class divider. One thing I really remember is being absolutely broke, and a guy from the bank calling to see if I’d be interested in taking on a credit card “we…

It seems to be a common theme that the ones who have been screwed by the banks or are currently being screwed by the banks are cheering for cryptocurrencies, while the ones with no experience of getting fucked themselves keep asking "But what problem does cryptocurrencies really solve? Seems useless to me because banks do the same thing"

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#228

Post by capableweb »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #203
spir wrote: post #190

I'd be interested to know patio11's updated take on the long arc of crypto. As a crypto person, it's cool to see how the benefits he describes-- eg lower transaction costs, embedded finance, and novel items such as bundling reporting and instant settlement-- are also driving much of the product-side interest in crypto and web3.

Lower transaction fees? I moved a few hundred £ into my wallet the other day for some Ethereum and paid like £50 in various fees and gas. The crypto world is full of layers of middle men taking their slice. Even swapping some ENS to ETH cost over $100 in gas

There are thousands of cryptocurrencies in use today. If you're out after faster transactions with lower fess, Algorand seems like a good option. Fee seems to be about 0.001 ALGO (0.002044 USD) about finalizes in about 5 seconds.

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#229

Post by capableweb »

starwind wrote: post #128
Cameri wrote: post #116

The bank cartels probably won't last long, just wait until money becomes mostly decentralized and digitalized. We'll finally be able to use our money without limits or immoral intermediaries.

What limits are you talking about?

Have you tried sending $10,000 or more between two "high risk" countries, like from Nigeria to Ecuador? There are so many limits for most people using banking today, where your money gets stuck in multiple places before you "verify" this and that, and then transfers take multiple days if they even get approved in the end.

Re: Debit cards are hidden financial infrastructure

#230

Post by refurb »

rudian wrote: post #183
refurb wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh boy no. Canada has only a handful of banks, minimal competition (they make money hand over fist) and customers get bent over on a regular basis.

Canada sure learns a lot of tricks from their big brother.

What’s hilarious is Canadians banks can come up with that all on their own.
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