Ntes on using 24 hr fuel pumps

There is more to a "credit card" than spending someone elses money -
yet you both seem to focus only on the 'credit' and not the "credit
card".

<sigh>

Well you and Cab figure out a name for it, and tell the credit card
companies to start using it then.

 

Not just a deposit - the full amount you wish to spend.

No comparison - if your deposit was equal to the full purchase price,
as in this case, then you wouldn't need a mortgage.

If there is no element of borrowing then the term "credit" is
completely inappropriate, whether in common parlance or strict
accounting terms. It is working, as Cab says, like a debit card.
You're spending your money, not buying on credit.

Or are you the sort of person who believes debit cards and credit
cards are pretty much the same?

 

Well the Chambers definition for 'credit' that applies to credit cards
is 'trust given to someone promising to *pay* *later* for goods already
supplied'. So if you pay in advance, it isn't by definition a credit
card.

It's a pre-pay cash card. If the card company marketing bods want to
call it something else that's up to them. But it is what it is.

 

Not really, debit cards still give you credit if you're allowed to go
overdrawn.

They are in that they both let you spend money you've got & money you
haven't got, & charge you interest on the 'money you haven't got'
element, but obviously lots of differences too.

 

I already said that in my previous post.

Not at all - but there is more to a device called a "credit card" than
simply credit.

The industry standard terminology for these cards is "credit card".
Some clarify as "pre pay" others clarify as "secured" - but otherwise
all providers call them credit cards.

If Cab and Krusty wish to be pedantic about the word "credit" that's
fine with me - just the same as Bruce refusing to see the difference
between written standards, and standards in usage.

They (Cab and Krusty) are only making it more difficult than it needs
to be. After all, asking any financial insitution for a "Debit card
that's not linked to my bank account but wo which I can pre-pay funds
and spend later" isn't going to get them very far (not that I imagine
either will ever want such a thing).

 

From the FairFX link I posted earlier:

"Is my FairFX Currency Card like a normal bank debit card or credit
card?

Your FairFX Currency Card is not a credit card or charge card but it
works like a debit card. It is a MasterCard® Card that carries a
variable amount of money dependent on how much has been loaded on to
it. Each time you use the card to purchase something or withdraw cash
at an ATM, the purchase amount is deducted from the available balance."

So that's that cleared up.

NEXT!

 

It's not a case of being pedantic. There's a very clear & concise
definition of the word credit in this context, & the card companies are
wrong to call them credit cards.

No, but asking for a pre-pay cash card would, because that's what they
are. The trouble is most people won't understand that term if this
thread is anything to go by, which is probably why the card companies
call them credit cards instead. That may change if & when they become
more common.

 

"There's more to a credit card than 'credit'".

More likely that because the card companies call them credit cards, the
general population follows suit.

Well, they are common in the US and they are still called CC's.

 

Handy for north of the border?

 

I managed to hit this once, but I think it was uses in a time period
rather than a monetary limit. Filled up my car, 50 quid. Filled up 2
gallon container from the boot. Drove home, got asked to fill up L's
Polo and got the CC refused at pay at the pump (Morrisons).

 

Are they covered by section 75 of the consumer credit act? I.e. can you
make a claim against the card issuer like you can with a proper credit
card?

 

Does that act apply in the US and NL? It's over 5 years since I had any
UK financial dealings and I don't keep up with the finite details.

 

No idea. Strikes me as a bit of a minefield if it doesn't apply though,
what with it being a fundamental reason for using a credit card in many
cases.

 

30 seconds of Googling suggests that the first (and only) UK pre-paid
card I looked at is covered by the act. Cashplus gold mastercard.

 

Duh, I know that, I thought you meant an equivalent.

Oh look, they call it a prepaid card, not a credit card!

 

Surely a bank issued debit card only lets you go to your agreed
overdraft and then kicks your arse big style with outrageous bank
charges?

I use a Barclays Connect debit card and all it lets me do is spend
what I've got in my current account plus my overdraft facility and
after that it throws a moody.

 

Yes, the overdraft being the 'money you haven't got' element.

 

And if you don't have an overdraft facility that very same card isn't
a credit card but it's still a bank issued debit card.