achtung!
Yesterday I took my transportation vouchers to SEPTA to get my bus tokens. Every paycheck has a certain amount withheld tax free at my request, which is earmarked for transportation vouchers. I like it because it eliminates the need to budget for tokens and it’s tax free.
I have $50 withheld for vouchers each month. However, the actual amount I need to purchase my tokens is $58. If I had $60 withheld, SEPTA wouldn’t give me my $2 change. So I pay the remaining $8 with my debit card. After what happened yesterday, maybe I should use a credit card instead.
I gave the cashier my vouchers and debit card, and paid for it as "debit." Then she charged my debit card $58. I left the window with my tokens. Notice anything? I didn’t. I wasn’t paying enough attention to the receipt to see that she’d overcharged me by $50, directly out of my checking account - she was only supposed to charge me $8.
A blessing for me is that the cashier noticed it herself and called me back to the window to give me a cash refund, which I can deposit into my checking account today. She would have reimbursed me directly if the card had been used as "credit," but since I chose debit, I have an extra errand today. Can you imagine how hard it would be to fix this if she hadn’t caught it at the window? I’d have been so mad at myself if this wasn’t caught until I got home.
Lesson learned? PAY ATTENTION! WATCH IT! WARNING! CAUTION! CUIDADO! ACHTUNG! …at the register. Always.
It’s a good thing she realized it. There seem to be so many dangers to using debit cards these days.. Sigh!~
Comment by s23 — October 30, 2007 @ 10:20 am
close call! i’m wary of using my debit card, especially when i hear of stories like this. reminds me of the one about the woman who was overcharged 1k on debit for a laptop and couldn’t make her mortgage payment on time b/c of it. i think that using credit cards for all purchases is a great idea — but i won’t be implementing that until all of my balances are down to zero.
i can use my cards responsibly now, but i don’t like doing it because then i have to remember to keep x amount of money in my checking account until i pay the bill. that is a major pain in the butt. i’d rather use my debit card instead. however, i could just say “credit” when asked debit or credit. thing is though, then there’s another pain - waiting for the transaction to clear. “credit” takes longer.
Comment by Dream — October 30, 2007 @ 3:22 pm