Worldwide trends indicate that a steadily increasing number of consumers are turning to debit cards to make purchases. Also, banks are now providing account-holders with card association-branded check cards. Interestingly, banks are also tending more towards providing their customers with cards linked to a debit network. This certainly affords consumers greater payment option flexibility.
Debit cards differ from credit cards when it comes to making payment. When a debit card is presented to a merchant for processing a sale, the full purchase amount is immediately deducted from the card-holders account. (In certain instances, this deduction may only be processed after a few days after the transaction has been completed).
Most countries nowadays use the chip and PIN service to process debit card transactions. Banks are strongly in favor of this method, since this system is one method of reducing cloned card fraud. In many countries it is now impossible to make payment without the simultaneous provision of a PIN (Personal Identification Number). POS (Point of Sale) terminals are not able to read the chip on the debit card, unless the corresponding PIN is not entered. This aspect actually makes it safer to use a debit card as opposed to a credit card when paying for your purchases.
Merchants are constantly looking for reliable and secure debit card processing service providers. Not surprisingly, there are a large number of companies providing just this service and mostly at competitive rates.
Benefits of using a secure debit card processing service are numerous. Here are just a few of them:
- Concise deposit information, reflecting deposits and including both summaries and detailed reports, is provided. This will show the date, credit and debit figures as well as amounts paid.
- The service provider will assist in resolving disputed transactions.
- A reputable and reliable debit card issuing bank or company always provides full particulars of their fee structure and TOS (Terms of Service).
- Businesses are provided with clear and simply laid out monthly statements reflecting all debit card transactions processed. Statements are typically sorted, either chronologically by date or by card type. Business owners are thus able to view these online.
- Fraudulent transactions are monitored and tracked.
- Chargeback and retrieval activity detail is provided. This gives businesses access to a complete history of past and current transaction activity.
The bottom line: Debit cards allow the buyer to make payments in much the same way as using a credit card, but the purchase amount is debited directly to the card-holder’s bank account. Furthermore, the same convenience of a credit card is enjoyed but without running the all-too real risk of incurring runaway credit card debt.
