Card Rebate

It is safe to say that when the first ATMs were installed in the 1960s (although a patent was filed in the 1930s) it slowly transformed how customers interacted with their banks, and more specifically with their bank account. The increasing use of the debit card (as well as the credit card) and how it has changed the way in which we can send and receive money have been vital parts of late twentieth century culture.

Going back only 10-15 years or so, the vast majority of our payments were probably by either cash or check. The internet has changed the way we do business. Many retail businesses in Britain for example no longer accept checks, and payment must be made by cash or by debit card or credit card. Many businesses however will not accept cash (for example, storage and rental companies) and insist on payment by debit card or credit card as part of the i.d. verification process.

Of course, the rise of the internet and of online shopping has played a large part in the rise in the past few years of debit cards and credit cards, making significantly easier and quicker, purchases that would have taken a good few days longer not that many years before, leading to a fall in the use of checks.

Retail shopping has been another area where debit cards and credit cards have grown exponentially ” negating the need for carrying around much cash, just like cheques, but unlike cheques much easier and quicker when it comes to completely the transaction, especially with modern chip n pin technologies. The card user however does just need to be aware of small retailers who may not allow debit or credit card use for small transactions.

Wanting to send or receive money can often be as easy as going to a bank or a shopping mall and not even necessarily going inside but putting the debit card or credit card into a machine in a wall that makes it easy to remove money from our bank accounts quickly and smoothly.

Of course, there is always the opportunity for fraud if a card is stolen or duplicated or high fees from some ATM machines, but for every expensive or fraudulent transaction there are millions successfully completed.

In the vast majority of cases, getting a debit card is as simple as opening a qualifying bank account. Accounts which do not grant a debit card are an increasingly small percentage of bank accounts as a whole, and the advantage of a debit card over a credit card is that it only allows you to spend the money you actually have in the account in the first place.

Most bank accounts nowadays come with a debit card as one of the features of the account as readily available as cheque books have ever been, and this recognises just how valuable a debit card is in modern banking. It is unlikely that a modern banking account will come without a debit card, with the advantage over a credit card of a more managed control over your personal finances.

With the correct use of your debit card, you will find that managing your money and sending and receiving money is much easier than it will have previously been, either in your retail shopping or through an ATM.

There is no doubt then just how important a debit card can be in the context of modern banking, compared with a credit card, and how easy it makes it both to send money and to receive money.