...don't forget to answer the 'Debit or Credit?' question. Because if you don't, the pump will sit there not pumping gas, but instead stupidly blinking at you - as it did with me (and inspiring my mini-rant yesterday) - until you do.
But also ask yourself, why exactly has this become such a common question in each and every retail transaction these days? Whether I'm buying lunch, groceries, fuel, etc... - 'debit or credit' seems to have become the question we must always answer before we move forward with any transaction.
Why do we always need to answer this stupid question, even if my card is clearly not a debit card, and even if, like me, you don't have a debit card.
Here's why - because Congress, in its eminent wisdom, decided that debit card fees needed to be 'reformed' and were massively reduced - via the 'Durbin Amendment' - as part of last year's Dodd/Frank Financial 'Reform' bill.
The Durbin Amendment is emblematic of the abject failure of Congress and the President to do the right thing. It would require the Federal Reserve Board to regulate the setting of debit card interchange fees so that they are “reasonable and proportional to processing costs”. It would allow merchants who take debit cards to impose surcharges or dollar limits on transactions, basically overriding the contracts that are now in place with the card networks. One doesn’t have to wade very far into the heated interchange debate to recognize just how bizarre this amendment is. If there is one financial services product that no one has argued, or could possibly claim was at the heart of the financial crisis, it is the debit card.
Now does this help you and me as consumers? Not at all - we pay what we always paid, and don't see a bit of difference. But for the retailers, since debit card interchange fees (i.e. the fee the retailer pays the card issuer - for the convenience of accepting their card) are now capped at .12 (as opposed to 2-3% for credit cards) there is a massive difference.
Doing the math on the ~$50 I paid for gas yesterday ($30 last summer - thanks for that Ben Bernanke!) those interchange fees would be something like, well $0.12 for a debit payment, and $1 - $1.50 for credit. No wonder that 'debit' option is always pre-checked - and no wonder that question gets asked so often at the register. That question can easily put an extra buck in the retailer's pocket every time I fill my tank or buy my groceries.
Of course, none of this is 'free' - because all of this regulation needs to be paid for in the form of new government rules that need to be drafted, bureaucrats that need to be hired and other regulatory apparatus to enforce these supposedly beneficial laws.
Not to mention that this legislation, while massively increasing the incentive for retailers to take debit cards, has significantly reduced the incentive for banks to offer them. So, in other words, our deficit increases, our taxes (or more likely, our kids' and their kids' taxes) as well as our bank fees (been offered Free Checking lately?) must eventually go up, and those low-income consumers who were paying 'extortionate' debit card fees that Dick Durbin, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were supposedly helping will, eventually, not be able to get a debit card at all.
The consequences of the Durbin amendment are pretty easy to forecast sadly enough. Someone obviously needs to pay for the debit card system. There is no evidence that I know of that it is a massive generator of profits for anyone so price caps aren’t going to come out of profits. Regulations if they are put into place will simply shift the cost of the debit card system from the retailers to the consumers. At least in the near term the retailers will pocket a good portion of that money in the form of extra profits. Consumers shouldn’t expect to see price reductions. Banks are going to have to figure out how to recover the costs of offering debit cards and it is inevitable consumers will face higher banking fees in one form or another. It is also likely that banks will be less enthusiastic about debit cards and regain for love for the plain old paper check.
That's our government at work, spending future generations' tax dollars to solve 'problems' none of us realized we had, and causing each and every one of us little inconveniences - wasting our tax dollars and time, for zero benefit - each and every day.
Think about that. And enjoy your 'Independence Day'.
these past few weeks, and now just caught his recent blog post 
