Archive for March 18th, 2008
Debit Cards, Credit Cards, and Debt
The new trend of debit cards began to strike up issues with travelers causing a zero balance and a devastating vacation with a lack of spending money. USA Today covered an article “Swipe that debit card carefully” which will make readers be aware of their account balances before traveling.
The reasons many travelers run into problems is because hotels have “just in case” fees thattake a large sum as a security deposit. It is funny because for Spring Break, 8 of us went to Cancun, Mexico and not evening thinking of taking extra cash for a security deposit. As a result, I lost about $100 for the hotel’s fees; I knew I was going to get it back, but after my five day getaway. Don’t get me wrong, I still had an incredibly fantastic time, so it didn’t affect me that much; however, that is not always the case.
We never think we are losing that money because we are getting it back, eventually. The Barcelo hotel in Mexico didn’t accept credit or debit cards for their deposit, so I guess it is a good thing to travel with more cash than you plan on spending, in hopes you don’t go into debt.
Hotels can be sneaking by not informing their clients the amount in fees, and sometimes they can get you in the end; nonetheless, it is a business. The article expanded on the story of one woman who was on a business trip, and had brought enough to cover her spending. However, because of the hotel’s fees, she ended up overdrafting, which caused her card to be rejected the first night at a resturant. She was mortified. Another story was about a man who paid the hotel fees with his debit card and allowed his wife to use the card for shopping; meanwhile, she overdrafted $300 from their account. Both received the deposit money back; however, it took much longer than they expected.
The article felt like it was speaking to all of its readers to just be aware. It was interesting because as much as we hope this never happens, it does more than we think. It really had me thinking about the future and possible business or typical vacations I will be going on. I am graduating in less than two months and need to be aware of my account before I overdraft and fall into debt, causing me to make that call to Dad.
