Stephen Sprunk writes:

On 04-Mar-12 13:18, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 17:28:38 on Sun, 4
Mar 2012, Graham Nye remarked:
As a result, there's an aura of literally "poor man's card" hanging over
all debit cards.

Eh? This might be true for Solo/Electron cards (which never seemed to
be accepted by everyone), though I don't have any experience with one.
I do have a couple of debit cards, replacing cheque guarantee and ATM
cards on my current accounts (US:checking accounts)[1], but I've never
noticed any form of poor man's aura about them.

[1] As do tens of millions of other UK current account holders.

ATM cards are OK, but I'm sure Debit cards have a flavour of "I'm not
creditworthy enough to have a Credit Card".

At least in the US, pure ATM cards are getting rare; most have been
replaced by debit cards, which are usable in ATMs. And debit cards are
typically included with checking accounts, so nearly everyone has one.

Many people who previously used credit/charge cards for convenience (and
paid in full every month) now use their debit cards instead.

Same in the UK, ATM cards either don't exist or if they do I have not
seen one for a very long time. Most people have both a debit and a
credit card, don't think you can have a current account (us checking)
without one. There i no stigma attached to them.

If there is a poor mans card, then it it the solo/electron, where I
believe every transaction must be authorised. A standard debit card
implies some sort of overdraft facility, Even if not formally agreed,
and can therefore also be used with an offline terminal.

Phil