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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi, John: <br>
<br>
<br>
I recommend NEVER using debit cards online, because identity
theft is too easy and too costly with a debit card. I use credit
cards online, because US credit card law makes it relatively easy
to contest questionable transactions. Debit card charges are much
harder to contest, and you can easily be forced to pay fraudulent
debit card charges. <br>
<br>
<br>
Can you use a Credit Union? <br>
<br>
<br>
A recent Al Jazeera article on "A public option for banking"
says that some Social Security and Disability recipients have
debit cards with major banks, because they do not otherwise have a
checking account, and it's extremely difficult and expensive for
them cash benefit checks. In January the US Postal Service
released a white paper suggesting they be authorized to run a
postal bank. <br>
<br>
<br>
In 2011, I wrote a "Move your money" flier that described
an eight-step process for selecting an alternative financial
institution. The first step in that process is to choose another
financial institutions. It took me several months of research to
finally select Provident Credit Union; I selected them, because
they offered interest with a checking account. (It's currently
1.76%, down from 2.24% when I started with them.) All the other
financial institutions offered something like 0.04% or less.) A
version of that flier is available as "No Credit Card trifold" on
our web site at
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.cagreens.org/santaclara/resources/flyers/noCreditCdDebt20111013.pdf">"http://www.cagreens.org/santaclara/resources/flyers/noCreditCdDebt20111013.pdf"</a>.
<br>
<br>
<br>
Hope this helps. <br>
Spencer <br>
<br>
<br>
On 3/13/2014 8:25 AM, John Thielking wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1394724323.13536.YahooMailNeo@web161904.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff;
font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial,
Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:18pt">
<h3><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.indybay.org/southbay">South Bay</a> | <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.indybay.org/globalization">Global Justice
and Anti-Capitalism</a></h3>
<div class="webcast">
<div class="headers">
<div class="heading"><strong class="heading">Problems With
Chase Bank</strong></div>
<div class="author">by John Thielking
( <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:pagesincolor@yahoo.com">pagesincolor [at]
yahoo.com</a> )
<br>
<em>Wednesday Mar 12th, 2014 4:52 PM </em></div>
</div>
<blockquote class="summary">Chase Bank is no longer a serious
bank. Has anyone else had problems with them similar to what
I am having?</blockquote>
<div class="article">Has anyone else experienced the following
problem with their bank recently (my bank is Chase)? Scores
of debit card charges over the past two months have been
declined allegedly due to the transactions being flagged for
possible fraud. I say allegedly because I doubt this is the
real reason. Two sets of transactions cause me to think that
legitimate flagging for fraud is not the true cause. One set
of transactions was with Microsoft to do a prepayment for
the Bing search engine. Half the online marketers in the
world use Bing so doing a transaction with them through
Chase should be completely routine. Another set of
transactions over a period of two months or more was for my
web hosting company esilverbullet. I have had the exact same
debit charges (on the exact same days of the month) paid to
that account through Chase (and before that to
brightbuilders who were sold to esilverbullet paid through
Wamu before Wamu became Chase) for the past 11 years. Why
they decided to flag that set of transactions for fraud at
this late date is a complete mystery. When I talked to a
customer service rep at my local Chase branch he told me
that he has had similar problems with his debit card. In my
view, Chase is no longer a serious bank. I am moving all of
my monthly online billing to no longer use my Chase debit
card, effective immediately. In some cases I am paying my
bills for 6 months in advance by check. Does anyone else
have any comments or experiences to add?</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: 408-655-4567
web: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.structuremonitoring.com">www.structuremonitoring.com</a>
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