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Cell phones as Credit Cards
ante_up writes "We should have known this was coming. Business Week reported that Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. (DCM ) is vamping up their cell phone technology. First they added a debit card facility and now are expanding to full credit card capability. What else can you add to a cell phone?"
You can.. at least with some samsungs on the Verizon network... my phone has a place for 2 NAMs.. so I can have 2 lines and switch back and forth :)
Using a debit card won't improve your credit rating as you didn't use credit. Using a credit card regularly and paying on time will improve your rating.
Also, there are a slew of consumer protection laws that do not apply to debit cards (such as the $50 liability if the card is stolen).
Although your bank may be voluntarily applying those rules to your debit card (such as allowing a "chargeback" - which can't be done since there was technically no charge to begin with, only a debit), no bank is required to comply with those rules.
See http://www.youngmoney.com/credit_debt/credit_basic s/040217_01 for a discussion on the differences between the two types of cards. In a nutshell: they are completely different and carrying a debit card is like carrying your entire bank account in your wallet.
The fact that your card may have "VISA" on it doesn't mean anything at all. VISA can be thought of as a manufacturer who has different products just as Ford has pickup trucks and mini-vans. The fact they both have "Ford" logos on them doesn't make them the same thing at all.
There is a reason banks push debit cards - it's in the best interest of the banks to do so.
How do I know these things? Just a few seconds of research on Google turned up the link above. Plus, I used to work at a company that wrote banking software and the business I own has a merchant account through which we accept MC, VISA, Discover, and Diner's Club.