Change in debit card limits due to new banking bill limitations

Not as bulky as you might think. I brought home €115 (2@€50 plus 1 ea @ €10 and €5) from my last trip. The 20s are about 5½" x 3"; the other smaller. The whole stack is 14/1000" thick. Your handkerchief is probably bulkier than that. A Euro note is less than 4/1000" thick. I think I carry around an average of €500, €350 which is enough for one person for five days (I hit the ATM once when we land and twice during the trip) plus my original cache. If you could get €500 from the ATM it would be 16 notes (8 small notes for €100 plus 8 20s). That stack would be less than 1/16" thick. When my daughter went through orientation at Wells Fargo they showed them 4 (2x2), 10" high stacks of $100 bills. That was a million dollars. The main reason that I use cash in Germany is that the places that take credit card are more expensive. Since 2004, I've spent the night in 22 places. Many have been Privatzimmer. I've averaged less than €32 per night, single occupancy, with breakfast. Only one of those places takes American credit or debit cards. Another says they take the EC-Cash card only.

The articles does not say a limit on "transactions" which would imply cash withdraws but talks of purchases with debit cards being limited. So the bigger question is impact on cash withdraw from your checking account? I think it would be difficult to deny you unreasonable access to your cash in a checking account. Something to watch.

No one mentioned it because it isn't relevant to European travel. This issue is specifically about debit cards, not ATM and not credit cards. This shouldn't be a political forum. So to make it about European travel, readers should know every bank limits ATM withdrawls from your account to a daily amount and every bank limits the amount that can be withdrawn from an ATM. Most banks will temporarily increase your daily withdrawl limit for foreign travel but you are still limited by the ATM machine's per-transaction limit.

Douglas, Actually it WOULD impact those of us traveling to Europe who do not have credit cards and rely on our debit cards for most purchases. I prefer not to carry a lot of cash on me and use my debit card as most people use credit cards. If I had to find the nearest ATM everytime I wanted to purchase something that cost more than $50 or $100, that would indeed impact my travel negatively. Incidentally, I haven't seen an ATM only card in years.

Frank: I did not catch the distinction between purchases with debit cards and withdrawals from an ATM. I did immediately assume the worst for cash withdrawals from ATMs in Europe. I hope you are correct, but agree, that anything can happen, and banks are going to do whatever they can to get around these new regulations. I don't use ATMs very often (personal security reasons) and prefer to get "cash back" after purchases. Just another inconvenience, I suppose.

I didn't see my small, local credit union (the one with no fees at all for transactions or withdrawals abroad) mentioned in the article. Just another reason to stay away from the big banks! I suppose the practice, if it happens, could spread, but I'm guessing my credit union won't be adopting it.

I have a Wells Fargo ATM only card.

"I prefer not to carry a lot of cash on me" So what do you do? You carry cards, and you probably carry them the same place as your cash, so if you lose your cash you lose your cards too. Your big problem is going to be, not the cash you lost, but that you can't get any more. That's why you have to protect your "stash" (cash and cards), like with a money belt.

Supposedly the banking bill will end free checking accounts and take us back to the good old fee days. I can't say I understand the bill enough to know it inside and out. I did hear that fees banks charge merchants on transactions would be limited. One possible (maybe probable) way for banks to respond is to lower allowed transaction amounts - thus keeping the percentages similar to what they now charge. Right now, most stuff is still in the conjecture phase. We'll see what really happens. Tiny daily limits would fundamentally change the way I travel.

Many financial institutions have done away with ATM cards and use debit cards instead. Personally, I'd prefer an ATM-only card because of the increased liability that comes with a debit card that is lost, stolen, or misused. I never use my debit card as anything but an ATM card.

Seriously you folks trust BofA enought to use your debit card for everything? (I have had such bad expereinces with B of A that I no longer trust them with one thin dime, but...) The problem with using your debit card for all purchases is that when it gets run through as $10,000 instead of $100 your cash is GONE while B of A checks to "make sure it's not right" I perfer not to risk my cash, it's easier to dispute a credit card charge then to deal with no cash IMHO.

I can't see where limiting the interchange fee is going to help the consumer significantly, but I can see where businesses would want it lowered. I'm sure that businesses are the ones lobbying (read bribing) congress to pressure the Fed into lowering the fees. And how does lowering the debit card POS limit alleviate the situation for the banks. What they are probably doing is punishing the consumers in hopes they will blame the government. I actually welcome debit card fees and checking account fees, because the bank is going to get your money somewhere, and at least these fees are highly visible. Banks will then have to compete on visible fees, and the fees will be forced to the minimum and banks will have to get more efficient or make lower profits. Isn't that the "free-market" way?

@Lee, Cash is bulky. Cards aren't. Safety isn't the issue for me. I operate the same way in the States.

Douglas stop smoking what rick gave you and see the bigger picture. I always make sure I have cash on me when i travel but when it comes to going to shops to send things home or other big purchases i use my debit. i have one credit card for real emergancies this is just a ploy by banks to make people start getting more credit cards to help keep money in the banks, but then once everyone starts charging and not paying again we will end up in the same situation the world is in now, a huge credit debt mess i am hoping the credit unions do not follow suite...they are the last hope against the evil empire of banks

Leeseriously? You measured the thickness of bills? Wow. What about change? Granted you need to keep a few coins handy for pay toilets, but not a lot. However, change certainly adds bulk and weight. I still can't get over the fact that you took the time to measure the thickness of a stack of bills. In the end, what matters most is people handling their finances in the way most comfortable for them. For me, it is carrying little cash and primarily using debit cards (with a credit card only for those things like car rentals that cannot be done with a debit card). To each his or her own.

I'm with Nancy - I carry very little cash, and what I have, I'm in no hurry to part with - whenever possible I use my debit card even for a soda or a muffin at the company cafeteria. It's SO much faster. People who use cash are just holding up the line!!! Having to write cheques will be like a return to the dark ages. I do most of my banking with a small local bank that does not charge fees on foreign transasctions and offers free chequing to seniors and students. If that changes, I guess I can switch back to my old credit union.

I don't think this is going to have any impact on those of us who travel to Europe. First, it is addressing "interchange" fees, which only have to do with POS transactions. They should not affect ATM withdrawals. Second, they are talking about the US Fed limiting interchange fees in this country. They are probably already regulated to something else in Europe, so no change. But, nevertheless, it obvious that using a card in Europe, at least Germany, puts you in a category that charges more, so why use it?

Keep in mind that most merchants inflate their prices to make up for the transaction fees they have to shell out to Visa/MC, so at least some of this cost trickles down to the consumer anyway. That said, a lot of merchants will also sell at a lower price if you pay in cash, so having cash on hand (at least for small purchases) is a good idea for everyone BUT the banks.

Karen is right - merchants actually lose money when people use debit cards to buy only a few dollars worth of goods. They make up for that with higher prices and bigger sales to other customers. And most, if not all banks still issue just ATM cards. It just that many people want debit cards instead. But if you ask they will give you only an ATM card.

Visa/MC have spent 15+ years convincing all of us to use either a credit or debit card for purchases. They do not want us to stop doing so and start writing checks. Neither do merchants want to take checks because collecting on a bad check is near impossible. What the card companies and banks want you to do is to run your card as a credit, not as a debit with a PIN. Here's why-running a card as a credit costs the merchant between 3% and 6%, depending on circumstances. Running it as a debit costs between $.75-1.00. Those fees are charged directly to the merchant, not to you. That means that on a $2.00 transaction, run as a debit, the merchant just paid half that amount to the bank. But running a $100 sale as a debit still only costs under a dollar. If that $100 sale was run as a credit, the bank will take about $4.00. Banks and merchant processors want all of us to run small transactions as debits, and large ones as credits. That's why they all have those points programs that only work when run as credit. Your local merchant would obviously like you to do the opposite-run small, under $20 sales as credit, and larger ones as debit. The financial reform bill would lower the debit fee to (I think) about $.25. That would seriously cut into the bank's bottom line. So the banks are fighting back, and floating that balloon about the transaction limits. The only change, you, the consumer, would notice is that larger transactions would HAVE to be run as credit. You would not have to carry a checkbook again. But, please, give your local merchants a break. Carry a little cash to pay for that bottle of pop or gallon of milk. Who ever said those banks needed reformed, anyway?