13th February 2005, 6:45 PM
I remember some stores in Chincoteague (dollar store, etc.) that only took debit cards... very weird... since many bank cards are debit cards they certainly do exist in the north but I don't think that they are as prevalant. Standard credit cards are, of course.
As for taking them, I don't think that anything that takes credit cards can immediately take debit cards. It does swipe the same way and all but it uses a different system so it'd need to also be set up for debit... after all they aren't credit cards so they don't work exactly the same way. It has to access your bank account and directly withdraw the money... even if it works in something of the same way as a credit card it's not exactly the same, I'm pretty sure.
As for taking them, I don't think that anything that takes credit cards can immediately take debit cards. It does swipe the same way and all but it uses a different system so it'd need to also be set up for debit... after all they aren't credit cards so they don't work exactly the same way. It has to access your bank account and directly withdraw the money... even if it works in something of the same way as a credit card it's not exactly the same, I'm pretty sure.