Pay for gas with a debit card without entering your PIN, and the station may put a hold of $75 on your account for several days — without your knowledge or permission — resulting possibly in bounced checks or refused charges:
Hosed at the Gas Pump — By Your Debit Card (Christopher Solomon)
The main argument for doing this is that the gas statioin doesn't know how much you're going to pump, and without a PIN they cannot process the transaction immediately, so they process a bunch at a time later (“batching”) at which point the block on your money is removed.
If your spending is under control, this is yet another reason to choose your credit card over your debit card. Some other reasons for choosing credit are:
1) You have different rights for charging back transactions;
2) There is no risk of getting hit with a debit transaction fee from your bank or credit union;
3) You get a rebate if your credit card offers it.
Merchants much prefer to take debit transactions because they are free to them. They have to pay a discount fee of a few percent plus a a flat fee for credit transactions. Some gas pumps made me confirm my choice of credit over debit twice (once by pushing “Pay Credit” and again by pushing “NO” to “Debit Y/N”).
PayPal does this too — the default is direct debit, and they ask you to confirm every time that you want to pay with a credit card. They even put the NO button in bold (to encourage you to go back to debit). Subtle manipulation, but it's caught us a few times.
