A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either the front or the back. Many new cards now have a chip on them, which allows people to use their card by touch (contactless), or by inserting the card and keying in a PIN as with swiping the magnetic stripe. Debit cards are similar to a credit card, but the money for the purchase must be in the cardholder's bank account at the time of the purchase and is immediately transferred directly from that account to the merchant's account to pay for the purchase.
A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom receive a fee in contradistinction to a payment, salary, or wage, and often use guineas rather than pounds as units of account. Under the feudal system, a Knight's fee was what was given to a knight for his service, usually the usage of land. A contingent fee is an attorney's fee which is reduced or not charged at all if the court case is lost by the attorney.
A dishonoured cheque is a cheque that the bank on which it is drawn declines to pay (“honour”). There are a number of reasons why a bank might refuse to honour a cheque, with non-sufficient funds (NSF) being the most common one, indicating that there are insufficient cleared funds in the account on which the cheque was drawn. An NSF check may be referred to as a bad check, dishonored check, bounced check, cold check, rubber check, returned item, or hot check. Lost or bounced checks result in late payments and affect the relationship with customers. In England and Wales and Australia, such cheques are typically returned endorsed "Refer to drawer", an instruction to contact the person issuing the cheque for an explanation as to why it was not paid. If there are funds in an account, but insufficient cleared funds, the cheque is normally endorsed “Present again”, by which time the funds should have cleared.
A transaction account, also called a checking account, chequing account, current account, demand deposit account, or share account at credit unions, is a deposit account or bank account held at a bank or other financial institution. It is available to the account owner "on demand" and is available for frequent and immediate access by the account owner or to others as the account owner may direct. Access may be in a variety of ways, such as cash withdrawals, use of debit cards, cheques and electronic transfer. In economic terms, the funds held in a transaction account are regarded as liquid funds. In accounting terms, they are considered as cash.
Wire transfer, bank transfer, or credit transfer, is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or entity to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account, or through a transfer of cash at a cash office.
A chargeback is a return of money to a payer of a transaction, especially a credit card transaction. Most commonly the payer is a consumer. The chargeback reverses a money transfer from the consumer's bank account, line of credit, or credit card. The chargeback is ordered by the bank that issued the consumer's payment card. In the distribution industry, a chargeback occurs when the supplier sells a product at a higher price to the distributor than the price they have set with the end user. The distributor submits a chargeback to the supplier so they can recover the money lost in the transaction.
Credit card interest is a way in which credit card issuers generate revenue. A card issuer is a bank or credit union that gives a consumer a card or account number that can be used with various payees to make payments and borrow money from the bank simultaneously. The bank pays the payee and then charges the cardholder interest over the time the money remains borrowed. Banks suffer losses when cardholders do not pay back the borrowed money as agreed. As a result, optimal calculation of interest based on any information they have about the cardholder's credit risk is key to a card issuer's profitability. Before determining what interest rate to offer, banks typically check national, and international, credit bureau reports to identify the borrowing history of the card holder applicant with other banks and conduct detailed interviews and documentation of the applicant's finances.
An overdraft occurs when something is withdrawn in excess of what is in a current account. For financial systems, this can be funds in a bank account. In these situations the account is said to be "overdrawn". In the economic system, if there is a prior agreement with the account provider for an overdraft, and the amount overdrawn is within the authorized overdraft limit, then interest is normally charged at the agreed rate. If the negative balance exceeds the agreed terms, then additional fees may be charged and higher interest rates may apply.
A floor limit is the amount of money above which debit card or credit card transactions must be authorized online by their Issuing banks. The limit can vary from store to store. Floor limits have become less significant as credit cards & most of the debit cards started being processed electronically, and all transactions are typically authorized online by sending the Authorization request to their issuing banks.
An unavailable funds fee is a penalty fee applied by a bank on a transaction account when a transaction is posted to an account that has negative available balance even though it has a positive physical balance. The fee is distinct from a non-sufficient funds fee as there is a positive physical balance but some or all the funds are on hold meaning that the balance is not yet available.
A line of credit is a credit facility extended by a bank or other financial institution to a government, business or individual customer that enables the customer to draw on the facility when the customer needs funds. A financial institution makes available an amount of credit to a business or consumer during a specified period of time.
Authorization hold is a service offered by credit and debit card providers whereby the provider puts a hold of the amount approved by the cardholder, reducing the balance of available funds until the merchant clears the transaction, after the transaction is completed or aborted, or because the hold expires.
The UK default charges controversy was an issue in consumer law, relating to the level of fees charged by banks and credit card companies for late or dishonoured payments, exceeding credit limits, etc.
An issuing bank is a bank that offers card association branded payment cards directly to consumers, such as credit cards, debit cards, contactless devices such as key fobs as well as prepaid cards. The name is derived from the practice of issuing cards to a consumer.
A credit card is a payment card, usually issued by a bank, allowing its users to purchase goods or services or withdraw cash on credit. Using the card thus accrues debt that has to be repaid later. Credit cards are one of the most widely used forms of payment across the world.
Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National plc and Others[2009] UKSC 6is a judicial decision of the United Kingdom Supreme Court relating to bank charges in the United Kingdom, with reference to the situation where a bank account holder goes into unplanned overdraft.
Bank regulation in the United States is highly fragmented compared with other G10 countries, where most countries have only one bank regulator. In the U.S., banking is regulated at both the federal and state level. Depending on the type of charter a banking organization has and on its organizational structure, it may be subject to numerous federal and state banking regulations. Apart from the bank regulatory agencies the U.S. maintains separate securities, commodities, and insurance regulatory agencies at the federal and state level, unlike Japan and the United Kingdom. Bank examiners are generally employed to supervise banks and to ensure compliance with regulations.
Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices is a proposal for bank regulation in the United States under Federal Reserve Regulation AA. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System announced in a press release on Saturday, May 2, 2008, that the proposed rules, "prohibit unfair practices regarding credit cards and overdraft services that would, among other provisions, protect consumers from unexpected increases in the rate charged on pre-existing credit card balances." Provisions addressing credit card practices aim to enhance protections for consumers who use credit cards and improve the credit card disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act:
Nessa Feddis is an American attorney and banking industry spokesperson.
Chime Financial, Inc. is a San Francisco–based financial technology company that partners with regional banks to provide certain fee-free mobile banking services. The company offers early access to paychecks, negative account balances without overdraft fees, high-yield savings accounts, peer-to-peer payments, and an interest-free secured credit card. Chime earns the majority of its revenue from the collection of interchange fees on debit card transactions.
