Chip and pin is an antifraud measure that is gradually being introduced in Australia, with all debit cards having them by 2015. It involves a card having a chip put in as well as the metallic stripe on the other side of the card. The chip allows a specialised computer to read the chip and [...]
EFTPOS, or debit, cards are quite commonly compared to pre-paid credit cards. This is because although they both look like credit cards and they are accepted by the same payment system that credit cards are accepted by. In fact they are quite different. There are also prepaid debit cards, also called “reloadable debit cards”. These [...]
The closest parallel to bank linked debit cards is a current account cheque. Like debit cards, cheques draw funds straight out of a current account and they don’t have a separate account. There are some differences. Debit cards offer quicker confirmation that the funds are in the account. This means that there is not the [...]
Charge cards are often seen to be equivalent to debit cards. Neither type of card allows a card user to build up a credit balance on the card. However they are very different. Charge cards are the oldest members of the payment card family. The first payment card was a charge card, the Diners club [...]
There are a number of alternatives to debit cards, and if a person is thinking of getting a debit card then it is useful to decide what sort of service they want. Credit cards are the most obvious alternatives to debit cards to most consumers. Debit cards and credit cards look very similar and they [...]