Debit Cards

Dear Harry: I made the mistake of buying a couple of electronic gadgets from a telephone solicitor. The guy was the smoothest talker I ever heard. When I got the things from my mailbox, they were not in any way like what I was told. I could tell this from the pictures on the boxes, so I sent them back completely unopened. The problem is that they hit my debit card for $78, including a shipping charge. I contacted the bank to try to stop the charge, but it was too late. You can probably guess what happened when I called the company.

For six years, Tanya Barber waited in two-hour lines that snaked around the block to collect welfare and food stamps. But thanks to a computerized welfare benefits system, the waiting days are over for Barber and an estimated 415,000 heads of households statewide. The state Department of Public Welfare this year replaced welfare payment centers with an electronic banking-type system called electronic benefits transfer (EBT). It costs $9 million less than the current system, reduces fraud and is aimed at teaching money management skills - something recipients will need as the government begins weening them from welfare rolls come March.

Smoking or non? Regular or decaf? Credit or debit? You're probably facing at least two of these weighty conundrums on a regular basis already. And if you haven't been presented the third one yet, you will be before long. Debit, or check cards, which look like credit cards and act like MAC cards, are coming soon to a wallet near you. A slowly growing phenomenon since they were first introduced in the early '80s, the cards have been spreading much faster lately, including here.

Bank of America and several smaller banks recently announced new monthly fees for customers who use debit cards. The move prompted howls of protest, including from Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), who took to the Senate floor to encourage customers to remove their money from banks that raise fees. That a sitting senator would encourage a bank run, especially in this economy, is remarkable - and an indication of the political heat generated by the fees. So let's see if we can shed some light on how to think about them.

Seven guns, including one stolen from a dead man, allegedly by a city morgue technician, and 66 food-stamp debit cards have a West Oak Lane businessman in trouble with federal lawmen. Spurgeon Link, 68, was a partner of former state Sen. T. Milton Street, Mayor Street's brother, when Link started selling pottery and flowers and other goods in the late 1980s on a lot at the intersection of Ogontz, Chelten and Stenton avenues. Link, who does business under the names Think Link and Link's Concrete World, branched out and opened a pawn shop at the same location, and that's when he got in trouble, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down yesterday.

Some people describe it as a quick, sideways glance that silently communicates volumes: disapproval, resentment, disgust, sometimes even pity. Others say it's more like a stare: slow and judgmental. Eyes carefully study the groceries on the conveyor belt, moving from the boxes of cookies to the bottles of soda, vigilant for signs of extravagance. Mumbles rise from the others on line about the extra wait. It's a common experience at the checkout line for someone paying with food stamps.

A paper chase is nearing an end for hundreds of thousands of child-support recipients in Pennsylvania. This month, recipients of court-ordered support payments in Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, and Montgomery Counties will receive notification that the checks will no longer be in the mail but in a debit card. Since August, the state has been phasing in the debit system to replace the support checks that are sent out from Harrisburg, according to officials. The program started in Philadelphia in February.

Visa USA, responding to consumer complaints, said yesterday that it would not make debit-card holders responsible for fraudulent transactions as long as they notify issuers within two days that a card has been lost or stolen. If a card isn't reported missing within two days, the consumer would pay up to $50. The policy, effective Nov. 1, applies to Visa credit-card, Check Card and Interlink debit-card programs. It was unclear how much the change would really affect most card users.

Exorbitant bank debit-card fees wrongly target responsible consumers who would rather pay as they go than accumulate high credit-card debt. Bank of America first announced a $5 monthly fee to customers who use debit cards to shop, but Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are testing similar fees and others are sure to follow. This comes as customers are increasingly wondering why they have to pay more to access their own hard-earned cash. Less than half the nation's banks offer free checking, down from 76 percent two years ago, according to Bankrate.com.

Misha Umansky left the Soviet Union in the early 1970s and settled in Philadelphia. A furrier by trade, Umansky did well here, and many of the Russian immigrants who followed later "look up to him as someone who knows the ways of America," a friend told U.S. District Judge James T. Giles yesterday. But Umansky had been caught up in a case involving a sizable fraud and allegations of an "organized" criminal network involving Russians. One participant in the fraud was killed gangland style earlier this year.

SEPTA awarded a Maryland company a $129.5 million contract Thursday for the long-awaited "smart card" fare system to allow bus, subway, trolley and rail passengers to pay for their trips by tapping a card on an electronic reader. The contract awarded to ACS Transport Solutions Group of Columbia, Md., will enable riders to use credit or debit cards they already own or get smart cards from SEPTA. The system is also being designed to eventually accept payment from smartphones. SEPTA's board of directors unanimously approved ACS at the recommendation of staff over two other bidders, Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego and Scheidt & Bachmann of Germany.

SEPTA awarded a Maryland company a $129.5 million contract Thursdayfor the long-awaited "smart card" fare system to allow bus, subway, trolley and rail passengers to pay for their trips by tapping a card on an electronic reader. The contract awarded to ACS Transport Solutions Group of Columbia, Md., will enable riders to use credit or debit cards they already own or get smart cards from SEPTA. The system is also being designed to eventually accept payment from smartphones. SEPTA's board of directors unanimously approved ACS, at the recommendation of staff, over two other bidders, Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego and Scheidt & Bachmann of Germany.

NEW YORK - Bank of America Corp. is scrapping its plan to charge a $5 monthly fee for debit-card purchases after outraged customers threatened an exodus. The about-face comes as customers across the country petitioned the bank and mobilized to close their accounts in favor of credit unions and community banks. The outcry prompted other major banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., to cancel trial tests of their own debit-card fees. Anne Pace, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, declined to say whether there was a spike in account closures following the September announcement that it would start charging the fee early next year.

Bank of America and several smaller banks recently announced new monthly fees for customers who use debit cards. The move prompted howls of protest, including from Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), who took to the Senate floor to encourage customers to remove their money from banks that raise fees. That a sitting senator would encourage a bank run, especially in this economy, is remarkable - and an indication of the political heat generated by the fees. So let's see if we can shed some light on how to think about them.

Exorbitant bank debit-card fees wrongly target responsible consumers who would rather pay as they go than accumulate high credit-card debt. Bank of America first announced a $5 monthly fee to customers who use debit cards to shop, but Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are testing similar fees and others are sure to follow. This comes as customers are increasingly wondering why they have to pay more to access their own hard-earned cash. Less than half the nation's banks offer free checking, down from 76 percent two years ago, according to Bankrate.com.

Is this really a battle America's megabanks want to re-fight? The tempest over Bank of America's new $5-a-month debit-card fee, and word that other large banks plan to follow suit, has spawned a new set of storms. Some Occupy Wall Street protesters portray the new fee as the latest example of the financial industry run amok. One group is touting Nov. 5 as "Bank Transfer Day" and urging consumers to switch their accounts to credit unions. Another, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is promoting a national "Move Your Money" movement that it says already has 80,000 adherents.

A Philadelphia police officer was charged Tuesday with using debit and credit cards he stole from people who were jailed, federal prosecutors said. Charles Jacoby, 30, was charged in a criminal information with one count of wire fraud related to a debit card transaction in April at a Wawa store in Philadelphia. Being charged by criminal information means Jacoby likely will plead guilty. Jacoby, a 10-year veteran of the force, was assigned to the 22d District as a patrol officer and cell block attendant, federal prosecutors said in the information.

NEW YORK - If you had a Bank of America account with a debit card between January 2001 and May of this year, you may be due some cash. The nation's largest bank has started contacting customers who may be entitled to a refund. It recently reached a class-action settlement over the way it charged overdraft fees. There are still other suits working their way through federal court in Florida. In the settled case, Bank of America agreed to create a $410 million fund, with the money used to pay back customers who were charged overdraft fees as a result of the company's policy of processing debit-card transactions based on the size of the transaction, rather than when the purchases occurred.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that banks can charge retailers only 21 cents each time they swipe a debit card. That was an increase from its initial proposal of 12 cents per swipe. Banks and big payment processors such as Visa and MasterCard convinced the Fed that was too low to cover the cost of handling transactions, maintaining networks, and preventing fraud. Banks currently have no limit and charge an average of 44 cents per swipe. The Fed voted 4-1 to adopt the rule, which was required under last year's financial regulatory law. Gov. Elizabeth Duke opposed the rule.