Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

Re:Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B by omniscient_oce on Monday August 02, 2021 @08:47AM (#28035808)

Myself and most people I know (early twenties) use what the banks give by default which is a "Debit Mastercard/Visa" which lets you shop online like a credit card, perform chargebacks, or pay in-store, but the money just comes out of your savings account like a debit card - not on credit (they get declined if your account is empty too AFAIK but haven't tested it ;P). Are these common overseas? I rarely see reference to it on here or Reddit which is presumably predominantly people from the US or Europe.

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Re:Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B by bruce_one on Monday August 02, 2021 @05:39PM (#28043040)

> they get declined if your account is empty too AFAIK but haven't tested it ;P

Not always, at least some banks will allow you to go into overdraft and then charge a fee (e.g. $15 for Commbank) - so it's worth being cautious about running out.

I remember miscalculating and going into overdraft by a very small amount (e.g. a dollar or two) and then being slugged the overdraft fee - I would've much preferred the transaction to be declined, but that isn't/wasn't the default behaviour.

For example: https://www.commbank.com.au/support.banking.explain-account-... -> `CommBank may allow you to overdraw transaction accounts for the following payment types... Spend using your linked CommBank card`

(It used to be enabled by default with Commbank, not sure if that's still the case; but I'd kinda guess "yes"...)

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Re:Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B by omniscient_oce on Monday August 02, 2021 @07:03PM (#28043789)

Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind

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Re:Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B by lumost on Monday August 02, 2021 @09:33AM (#28036288)

Uncommon in the US as most major credit cards give you "rewards" for using them which amount to 1-5% off every purchase.

Debit cards are used almost exclusively when credit cards are unavailable.

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Re:Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B by Semaphor on Monday August 02, 2021 @09:16AM (#28036103)

Those are what the vast majority of people in Germany use (mainly our own girocard network, but MC/Visa debit are big as well)

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Re:Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B by touisteur on Monday August 02, 2021 @09:33AM (#28036290)

Well yeah, most cards in Europe aren't 'credit' who would want that. If you want a credit, take a loan... Or use the store-financed 'free payment plan' for a fridge or a dishwasher...

One thing we have is deferred payment (usually 1 month). And looooooads of credit companies...

Some payment cards here (usually with 'store points') are with 'revolving loans' which is considered quite predatory... Wouldn't want to touch this with a space-elevator-sized pole.

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Re:Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B by sprkwd on Monday August 02, 2021 @08:54AM (#28035866)

This is very common in the UK.

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