Debit vs Credit Card? It makes a difference

[nostalgia]

Last Saturday, I tried to buy with my debit card a senior 10 trip to New Rochelle at Grand Central. I entered my ZIP code but the transaction failed. I repeated with the same result. I gave up and decided to buy it at New Rochelle where I've never had a problem.

 I checked my bank balance the next day using internet banking and found that $52.50 was deducted from my available balance. Wait a minute!! I was charged for a ticket I wasn't given. The $52.50 wasn't deducted from the ledger balance for several days. The charge was in limbo. I can't file a reimbursement claim until the charge actually shows up.

I pieced everything together after talking to my bank. The ticket agent is supposed to ask "Debit or Credit?" If debit, the security check is "Enter your PIN." If credit, the security check is "Enter your ZIP code." The agent assumed I was using a credit card and didn't ask the question. ZIP code ISN'T the correct security check for a debit card so the transaction failed. (I don't know if it would have succeeded if I entered my PIN.)

The $52.50 wasn't sent to Metro North but placed in a pending folder waiting for Metro North to claim it. But Metro North has the wrong security code so they can't claim it OR the railroad didn't even try. (Probably the second situation.) The railroad has 5 business days to claim the $52.50. After 5 days, the authorization to take the money expires and the $52.50 will come out of the pending file and put back into my available balance.

Just a note of caution.

[SevenEleven]

Depending on your bank, failed/denied transactions should be reimbursed before the day is over. I've had the same thing happen with a faulty machine and the purchases were credited back to my account. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

53 minutes ago, SevenEleven said:

Depending on your bank, failed/denied transactions should be reimbursed before the day is over. I've had the same thing happen with a faulty machine and the purchases were credited back to my account. 

Not necessarily.  Some banks will do it as a courtesy, but they don't have to.  Chase will do it if you get the a nice person on the phone.  Banks like BoA are another story.  They'll say it isn't a banking error which is true.

4 hours ago, nostalgia said:

Last Saturday, I tried to buy with my debit card a senior 10 trip to New Rochelle at Grand Central. I entered my ZIP code but the transaction failed. I repeated with the same result. I gave up and decided to buy it at New Rochelle where I've never had a problem.

 I checked my bank balance the next day using internet banking and found that $52.50 was deducted from my available balance. Wait a minute!! I was charged for a ticket I wasn't given. The $52.50 wasn't deducted from the ledger balance for several days. The charge was in limbo. I can't file a reimbursement claim until the charge actually shows up.

I pieced everything together after talking to my bank. The ticket agent is supposed to ask "Debit or Credit?" If debit, the security check is "Enter your PIN." If credit, the security check is "Enter your ZIP code." The agent assumed I was using a credit card and didn't ask the question. ZIP code ISN'T the correct security check for a debit card so the transaction failed. (I don't know if it would have succeeded if I entered my PIN.)

The $52.50 wasn't sent to Metro North but placed in a pending folder waiting for Metro North to claim it. But Metro North has the wrong security code so they can't claim it OR the railroad didn't even try. (Probably the second situation.) The railroad has 5 business days to claim the $52.50. After 5 days, the authorization to take the money expires and the $52.50 will come out of the pending file and put back into my available balance.

Just a note of caution.

This is why I rarely go to tellers for Metro-North tickets unless I have to.  They can often times be out to lunch.  I went and purchased some tickets from GCT and paid with cash.  The teller takes my crisp $20 bill and hands me back the most worn out bills possible.  I didn't say anything because my plan was to use it to refill my Metrocard with some other bills, so I go to use one of the bills and the machine won't take it, so I go back to his window and tell him, and he starts acting like he doesn't recall doing a transaction with me less than 5 minutes ago, so then I had to get assertive about it and then he tells me to calm down.  Like really, don't play stupid with me. I was this close to asking for a supervisor to come over because he knew damn well what he did.  

I always select credit, even when paying with a debit card. They aren't treated in the same manner by the bank.

[Deucey]

17 hours ago, nostalgia said:

Last Saturday, I tried to buy with my debit card a senior 10 trip to New Rochelle at Grand Central. I entered my ZIP code but the transaction failed. I repeated with the same result. I gave up and decided to buy it at New Rochelle where I've never had a problem.

 I checked my bank balance the next day using internet banking and found that $52.50 was deducted from my available balance. Wait a minute!! I was charged for a ticket I wasn't given. The $52.50 wasn't deducted from the ledger balance for several days. The charge was in limbo. I can't file a reimbursement claim until the charge actually shows up.

I pieced everything together after talking to my bank. The ticket agent is supposed to ask "Debit or Credit?" If debit, the security check is "Enter your PIN." If credit, the security check is "Enter your ZIP code." The agent assumed I was using a credit card and didn't ask the question. ZIP code ISN'T the correct security check for a debit card so the transaction failed. (I don't know if it would have succeeded if I entered my PIN.)

The $52.50 wasn't sent to Metro North but placed in a pending folder waiting for Metro North to claim it. But Metro North has the wrong security code so they can't claim it OR the railroad didn't even try. (Probably the second situation.) The railroad has 5 business days to claim the $52.50. After 5 days, the authorization to take the money expires and the $52.50 will come out of the pending file and put back into my available balance.

Just a note of caution.

No, you just have account holds just in case the transaction is actually valid.

There's a time limit on how long a vendor has to send the approval/settlement of the charge, and when  exceeds that limit or reports it as a failed transaction, you'll see the money back.

It's how every card transaction works - 99% of the time it's an instantaneous approval or decline of the settlement.  just won't do it in a week because bureaucracy.

Could happen to you at Macy's or with ConEd.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 hours ago, Deucey said:

No, you just have account holds just in case the transaction is actually valid.

There's a time limit on how long a vendor has to send the approval/settlement of the charge, and when  exceeds that limit or reports it as a failed transaction, you'll see the money back.

It's how every card transaction works - 99% of the time it's an instantaneous approval or decline of the settlement.  just won't do it in a week because bureaucracy.

Could happen to you at Macy's or with ConEd.

At least the doesn't charge you a fee to use your debit card like ConEd does. Who does that? I refuse to pay that fee. They already charge enough as it is. 

[N6 Limited]

5 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

At least the doesn't charge you a fee to use your debit card like ConEd does. Who does that? I refuse to pay that fee. They already charge enough as it is. 

I wonder how much the MTA gets charged in service fees for accepting credit cards.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, N6 Limited said:

I wonder how much the MTA gets charged in service fees for accepting credit cards.

They can negotiate a deal on that, perhaps even a flat rate per month. The more transactions you do, the better rates you pay. An agency like them can eat those costs. I don't get ConEd though. They refuse to take debit or credit cards without forcing the customer to pay a fee which varies depending on the cost of the bill. They obviously don't want to eat any of those costs. AMEX always charges merchants the most so you'll pay handsomely.

[Deucey]

3 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

They can negotiate a deal on that, perhaps even a flat rate per month. The more transactions you do, the better rates you pay. An agency like them can eat those costs. I don't get ConEd though. They refuse to take debit or credit cards without forcing the customer to pay a fee which varies depending on the cost of the bill. They obviously don't want to eat any of those costs. AMEX always charges merchants the most so you'll pay handsomely.

Pretty sure they outsourced it to avoid that 2-3% Visa/MC/Amex fee, or to allow the vendor to pay that fee but profit from the difference between it and charging us that $4.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

27 minutes ago, Deucey said:

Pretty sure they outsourced it to avoid that 2-3% Visa/MC/Amex fee, or to allow the vendor to pay that fee but profit from the difference between it and charging us that $4.

Who outsourced what? They (the ) seem to have a department for debit/credit card issues. I've had my debit card blocked by them after making say charges for Metro-North and the express bus, and I've called them and they unblocked the card. They could also tell me about my transactions with them.  I've heard of being able to shop around for better rates on the transaction fees, but I don't know how they'd outsource it for better rates.

[Deucey]

30 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Who outsourced what? They (the ) seem to have a department for debit/credit card issues. I've had my debit card blocked by them after making say charges for Metro-North and the express bus, and I've called them and they unblocked the card. They could also tell me about my transactions with them.  I've heard of being able to shop around for better rates on the transaction fees, but I don't know how they'd outsource it for better rates.

ConEd. Usually when companies go with a vendor for payment processing, it's to downsize billing departments to cut costs - especially in the age of Square.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

31 minutes ago, Deucey said:

ConEd. Usually when companies go with a vendor for payment processing, it's to downsize billing departments to cut costs - especially in the age of Square.

Ohhh with ConEd definitely. I thought you meant the . I refuse to pay that fee. I send them a check electronically. That fee is like $4-5 per bill. That's a coffee drink right there or $50-60 a year that can be better used for something else.

[bobtehpanda]

The problem here is that the MTA is not a bank. So they don't know how to handle this type of crap.

It's not an excuse, it's simply a fact. The MTA has no idea how modern payment systems work. And in that case always use credit, since it is a lot easier to dispute a credit transaction than debit.