Durbin Amendment and Credit v. Debit

[pcuezze]

So the Durbin Amendment is great - some relief for interchange rates on Debit transactions. But I don’t quite understand what constitutes a “debit transaction”. If I have a debit card with a Visa logo (they all have them now) and do not put my PIN in, is that still a debit transaction?

I was always under the impression that stores gave you the debit/credit option as a way of guilting you into processing it as a debit transaction (b/c, I thought, debit transaction have always been slightly cheaper than cc transactions).

Realistically, if as a full service restaurant, I’m required to put the customer’s PIN in, it’s not going to happen and I’ll realize none of the savings under the Durbin Amendemnt.

Anyone got insight on this?

 

[paul7979]

No pinpad, no favorable debit fees.

We have a local credit union bribing their members to use the credit option when using their debit card by giving them a nickle back on every credit transaction.

 

[indie_pizza]

I’m not quite understanding this either. Mercury sent out an email that gave me the impression that it didn’t matter if you captured the PIN or not and that it would be reflected on our October statement. Going full service, my CC/Debit transactions have gone from around 50% to around 80%. With almost 4x more CC/Debit transactions in October, my monthly fee was slightly more than doubled, so I don’t think it matters if you get the PIN or not.