Hacker News Reader

Comment by ferrisford | Hacker News Reader

I've seen debit card's with a points system at a credit union (just sharing so you can research) https://www.redwoodcu.org/personal/redwood-rewards I have no affiliation with them, had just been researching something similar a few months back.

I don't personally want to use a debit card for my everyday purchases, mostly for security reasons. I figure if I only use a credit card, then if the card gets compromised I can argue with my bank over the charges rather than asking them to put money back in my checking account while the fraud is investigated. Cashback on purchases is just icing on the cake.

View on HN

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-cr... Credit Cards have better mandated federal requirements about fraud protection. Limit of $50 generically, where Debit cards are limited at $50 if reported in 2 days (which is hard to do).

Some banks go above and beyond for Debit Cards but check with your bank.

I have similar concerns, although my wife and I have sworn off using credit cards due to candidly our lack of discipline paying the balance off in time. Do you think things like Apple Pay with the virtual cards provide that layer of security?

To any bank out there: I think if you offered a debit card that is backed by "virtual money" rather than the cardholders physical account, you would get my business in a heartbeat. The primary difference between the OP's answer is when your debit card is compromised, you are on the hook until the investigations are completed and still it is not a guarantee your funds are recovered.

We have zero liability backed by MasterCard, so if there is a charge you don't recognize we will refund you right away and take it up with the merchant instead of leaving you with $X amount less in your bank account.

Mobile wallets are pretty secure and when you use them to pay you aren't handing over your card number, kind of similar to using chip cards. If you're not going to use a credit card, then a debit card run though Apple or Google Pay is what I'd go for.

Also wanted to mentioned, we offer a virtual card for online purchases as a security pre-caution.

That's actually pretty nifty. I think you should add another section to your landing page about security that mentions chips, mobile wallets, and virtual cards for online payments. Those are all factors I'd look at when shopping for a new bank account.

They're usually reserved for people with bad credit, but you can request a secured credit card. The limit is however much you put into an attached savings account. So you have to have the money before you spend it. It's still a credit card, you just have to put cash up front.

if it's an overspending issue you could always try a charge card where you have to pay off the balance every month. the benefit is that they usually have comparable rewards and still act as a firewall for your checking account. if it's more of a "just can't remember to pay on time" issue, then it won't really help.

you could also setup autopay against your checking account. in theory, it shouldn't be any harder to ensure you don't overdraft one time at the end of the month if you are already making sure you don't overdraft for each purchase, but everyone has their own weird hangups, so I'm not judging.

yes, until the protections are equalized for debit cards relative to credit cards, use credit cards and pay them off monthly.

set up autopay to pay the full statement balance each month from your checking account, so you don't have the hassle of dealing with it every month. then have all other monthly bills autopaid with your credit card(s), so you get points for that too. (this is what i do.)

Thanks for sharing! What we meant is that we are the first debit card with meaningful rewards that are comparable to those of a credit card.

Re security: We allow you to have full control over the card for enhanced security: Ex: You can set daily spending limits, turn ATM withdraws on/off, and get instant notifications every time your card is swiped.

Not saying it's not secure, I just enjoy a firewall between the card I use and my cash balances. I pay off the balance each month so it works well for me. I understand it doesn't work for everyone and that only using a debit card helps some people live within their means, kudos for trying to build a good product for that market.

  rewards that are comparable to those of a credit card

But who pays for those rewards?

With a credit card, my rewards are a partial kickback of the fees charged to the merchant. Those aren't present in a debit transaction, which may have just a small per-transaction fee that doesn't vary with purchase amount.

Where does that money come from? Is the plan based on selling demographic or purchase history data to third parties?

We do a partial kick off of interchange fees as well, since we are partnered with a smaller bank this allows us to have a larger merchant fee.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com