Make your ad cents (and dollars) count

Back in May, we had tremendous interest from readers who asked if they could donate their earnings to help victims in China and Myanmar (Burma). We heard you loud and clear, and so we're happy to announce that during the next week, you can donate a portion or all of your entire unpaid balance as of November 30, 2008 to reconstruction efforts in these regions. The earth may no longer be quaking and the waters may now be calm, but help is still needed in these areas. Whether you have a balance of $0.10 or $100 in your account, we invite you to participate within the next week. Just think if everyone donated a dollar, what a difference that would make.

As you may expect, there are certain restrictions to donating, and all our normal policies still apply -- so please don't ask others to click on your ads in order to increase your earnings. For more information on how to participate, visit our donation form.


Finally, we know that you may be interested in donating your earnings to additional charities and causes. Please stay tuned to our blog for future opportunities to donate in other ways.

Turkeys, thanks, and taxes

This Thanksgiving weekend, we'd like to take a moment to ask our U.S.-based publishers to spend a little post-turkey time (when you're not watching football or taking advantage of those Black Friday bargains) to review your AdSense tax information.

Tax season is just around the corner and we want to make sure that we give the IRS the most accurate information. So please pay a quick visit to your AdSense account, and double-check your payee name -- that's the name that we send payments to --and the tax information you've provided, especially your Social Security or Employer Identification Number.

Does the info in your account correspond exactly to the info in your tax documents? If not, you may want to consider updating your payee name so that everything matches up.You can resubmit your tax information by logging in and following the steps in our Help Center. Keep in mind that we'll be sending out tax forms to publishers who qualify during the month of January.Posted by Elizabeth Ferdon - AdSense Publisher Support

Enjoy the Spoils of Love

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Business Opportunities-High Income

Anyone who is on the Internet is obviously aware of the high-income business opportunities that exist online. With so much hype and in-your-face marketing about such business opportunities, it is impossible to be naive about such possibilities. Almost all of us, at some point or the other, have explored the secret of getting rich quick, without doing any work at all! You should be very careful of such schemes that promise to do this, or much more. Always remember the old saying, no gain without pain. However, it is also true that Internet does open up many possibilities of high-income business if you care enough to look.

Such high-income business opportunities are very attractive due to the fact that there is usually little or no investment required on your part, and you start earning money really quick. But if you are looking for easy money, without doing anything, you should try your luck in Las Vegas. On second thoughts, even there you wont get money for doing nothing and you will actually have to gamble, at huge stakes. No, the Internet is not about money for nothing.

You will have to treat high income business opportunities as just that, business. It will require your time, dedication, and hard work, but if you are sincere enough, you can expect to reap its benefits, slowly at first, but then quite rapidly.

There are number of opportunities available on the Internet where you can earn good money, either working full-time, or part-time. But there are also many frauds that will want to lure you into money for nothing, and will be only too happy to vanish with your hard earned money. The opportunities available are in various fields, and you can choose some such field that interests you.

Internet can be about doing what you love to do, as opposed to the dull boring job that you have at the moment. This is one of the beauties of working within such a medium, where you can do something that you enjoy, and that too in your time, and at leisure. Here are some of the most high earning income opportunities available on the internet-

. Affiliate marketing- Such programs, if researched properly, do have high earning potential. There are many that are not worth looking into, and those that ask for a joining fee or any other form of payment might be frauds, and should be avoided. Most affiliate marketing programs are free to join, and if you are affiliated with some good companies, they can lead to high income. Such programs are used to link your web site to merchant web sites, and they pay you if anybody makes a purchase with such merchant as a result of being directed by your site. It is advisable to affiliate with more than one merchant to increase your income prospects.

. Freelance content writing/graphic designing- If you have a love for writing or are good at web and graphic designing, there exists countless opportunities to work as a freelancer. People regularly give out such work over the internet to maintain their websites, and thus this can be a good earning avenue.

. Selling on e bay- Many people make a living by selling on e bay. It allows you to sell anything to anyone in the world, and thus open large prospects, and a ready consumer bays. As spending over the internet continues to rise, things will only get better with time.

. Domain trading- You could buy certain domains over the web when they are going for cheap, and then can sell it for increased price. This calls for foresight on your part, and keeping abreast with latest happenings.

. Commodity trading- With the internet, you can engage in any kind of commodity trading from any where in the world. Trading in currency, stocks, precious metals, oil etc. can earn you huge profits.


Make a 6 or 7 figure income as a Coach. If you are seeking a Business Opportunity that allows you to be your own boss and set your hours while helping Business improve their profits then check out the hottest career in 2007.

building a high profile list

Your sales figures on the eBay website may look promising; however, you have not been able to make huge profits as you had planned. If you are struggling to increase your income and hoping that your customers return to you repeatedly for more business, it's about time that you built a solid list for repeat business.

A list, a mailing list to be more precise, is crucial for the success of every Internet business. Just the way you want your customers to return to you, customers also love to be associated with a particular dealer as long as they are satisfied with the quality and service. It therefore largely depends on how sensitively you handle customer relations. Every customer who has purchased a product from you earlier is likely to return back wanting for more provided that you make the best offer. Thus, once you add a customer in your mailing list, there is a strong probability that he will buy from you again.

A tried and tested formula of increasing your list of potential customers is to find ebooks that offer resale rights from various sites and list them on eBay. You can get these books for free or against a membership free. Although you won't earn much, as you would be selling them at really low prices, you can still persuade buyers to subscribe to your newsletter. You can thus add them to your mailing list and increase your list of potential customers.

This is how it works ….

You need to offer free bonuses to every visitor who's inclined to subscribe to your newsletter. Thus, when a buyer purchases an ebook from you, drop them a mail that includes the download link. Also tell them how they can receive further free bonuses for which you need to add the link that takes them to your main site that has the "opt in create" option. After all, who doesn't like to receive freebies by merely filling out a simple online form?

When you decide the sale price of your ebook, it's imperative that it covers related eBay fees. At the same time, it's also crucial that your price is minimal in order to boost subscription. If this means losing a bit on every sale, so be it! If you have a top-quality newsletter that your subscribers are too happy to receive, am sure a little loss won't harm you. In the long run, these minor losses may open the gates for huge profits.

One way of building a mailing list as well as increase you income is to send out broadcasts of various affiliate products that you are currently promoting and earn a handsome commission for the same. This can boost your relationship with your customers, as they would be more than happy to receive timely information and would immensely appreciate your efforts.

http://ebay.com

earn money on line with wordpress and google adsense!

Wordpress is a dual-use program that can be used to maintain a blog and manage your online content. It is extremely simple to manage online content and your blog with Wordpress.

Wordpress has an administration panel known as 'dashboard' which allows you to write and manage posts and pages in a simple word processor like fashion. Dashboard also allows you to manage categories and all other aspects of your site.

The really great thing about using Wordpress as a basis for your Adsense website is how customizable it is. By including many Adsense blocks in optimal positions, the thousands of readily available Wordpress templates or themes can help you achieve the best click through rates. Using an Adsense ready theme makes creating an Adsense site a snap as you simply upload a theme from the thousands available ready to your server. This leaves you with more free time to concentrate on writing quality content for your website!

Some Wordpress themes (ones that make it easy to earn money online) that include Adsense ad units and link units are also Search Engine Optimized (SEO), which means that the pages of your site are constructed in the best way possible for search engine spiders, and also the pages are interlinked in such a way as to ensure the search engines can reach all pages of your site in the correct manner.

Each new post you create in Wordpress will produce a ping for many services using "pingomatic." Search engines will know that you have created new content and will send search engine spiders to index your site. The generation of both sitemaps and RSS feeds will be automatic which multiplies the power of your money making ideas.

As Wordpress is a blogging platform it has built in functionality to allow visitors to your site to comment on the articles you write. This feature encourages visitors to stay on your site longer. In fact, since your visitors are thus adding content, they're helping you make your site even more attractive and earn money online.

Thousands of plugins that can quickly add more functionality to your site are available through Wordpress. For example, affiliate marketers will love the plugin that automatically turns words into links. With that plugin, you can quickly create affiliate words and links you'd like your site associated with.

4 Ways You Can Make Money Online With Your Blog Post#

When you blog online, it is really important to be not shy about promoting products on your blog. In the past I used to think that if I pitched too much my viewers wont like it. But the fact is that the blogger also have to make a living from his efforts so once in a while it’s good to have a pitch on your blog but not too much.

Here’s are 4 ways I normally do it on my blog which I found great success with:

1. Direct Pitch Post

This style of writing may offend new readers if they just visited your blog but it does show a point and direct message to tell them to buy something. Although everyone do not like reading a sales pitch post, but if you not pitch to your viewers, your customers will never know directly what you are trying to sell them.

2. In Direct Pitch Post

I love doing this the most because the pitch is so hidden that you will never noticed it’s a pitch link. However I realized although you may have a high click through for the link. But the chances of them closing the browser after they click on the link would also be higher depending what the person offer on the sales page.

Some sales page would offer a free gift which I felt is a good way of generating leads and sales. But there are also some that only hard sell to you. There are pros on and cons to each type of sales copy but you should try a mix of both and test.

3. Review Products Post

A very innocent way to sell a product on your blog would be by reviewing people’s product. However you would not want your WHOLE blog to be about just reviews. You need a good mix of both quality information and reviews. Most blogger made a mistake of just providing information but do not offer any products or recommendations.

4. Put Your Affiliate Links To Keywords of Your Other Post

You can also promote affiliate links using hidden words or parts of your blog post on your blog. I had seen many bloggers do that quite often with great success and proof to convert also pretty well. There are also plug-ins you can buy to replace all words on your blog or some of the keywords to always point to your affiliate links too.


http://www.mydzo.wordpress.com

Stock exchange

A stock exchange, share market or bourse is a corporation or mutual organization which provides facilities for stock brokers and traders, to trade company stocks and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for the issue and redemption of securities as well as other financial instruments and capital events including the payment of income and dividends. The securities traded on a stock exchange include: shares issued by companies, unit trusts and other pooled investment products and bonds. To be able to trade a security on a certain stock exchange, it has to be listed there. Usually there is a central location at least for recordkeeping, but trade is less and less linked to such a physical place, as modern markets are electronic networks, which gives them advantages of speed and cost of transactions. Trade on an exchange is by members only. The initial offering of stocks and bonds to investors is by definition done in the primary market and subsequent trading is done in the secondary market. A stock exchange is often the most important component of a stock market. Supply and demand in stock markets is driven by various factors which, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks (see stock valuation).
There is usually no compulsion to issue stock via the stock exchange itself, nor must stock be subsequently traded on the exchange. Such trading is said to be off exchange or over-the-counter. This is the usual way that bonds are traded. Increasingly, stock exchanges are part of a global market for securities.


History of stock exchanges

In 11th century France the courratiers de change were concerned with managing and regulating the debts of agricultural communities on behalf of the banks. As these men also traded in debts, they could be called the first brokers.
Some stories suggest that the origins of the term "bourse" come from the Latin bursa meaning a bag because, in 13th century Bruges, the sign of a purse (or perhaps three purses), hung on the front of the house where merchants met.
However, it is more likely that in the late 13th century commodity traders in Bruges gathered inside the house of a man called Van der Burse, and in 1309 they institutionalized this until now informal meeting and became the "Bruges Bourse". The idea spread quickly around Flanders and neighbouring counties and "Bourses" soon opened in Ghent and Amsterdam.
In the middle of the 13th century, Venetian bankers began to trade in government securities. In 1351, the Venetian Government outlawed spreading rumors intended to lower the price of government funds. There were people in Pisa, Verona, Genoa and Florence who also began trading in government securities during the 14th century. This was only possible because these were independent city states ruled by a council of influential citizens, not by a duke.
The Dutch later started joint stock companies, which let shareholders invest in business ventures and get a share of their profits - or losses. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company issued the first shares on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. It was the first company to issue stocks and bonds. In 1688, the trading of stocks began on a stock exchange in London.
The role of stock exchanges

Bombay Stock Exchange

Frankfurt Stock Exchange

Hong Kong Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

Madrid Stock Exchange

Montreal Stock Exchange

New York Stock Exchange

Osaka Securities Exchange

Philippine Stock Exchange, in Makati City

São Paulo Stock Exchange

Shanghai Stock Exchange

Taiwan Stock Exchange

Tokyo Stock Exchange

Toronto Stock Exchange

SWX Swiss Exchange
Stock exchanges have multiple roles in the economy, this may include the following:[1][2]

Raising capital for businesses
The Stock Exchange provides companies with the facility to raise capital for expansion through selling shares to the investing public.

Mobilizing savings for investment

When people draw their savings and invest in shares, it leads to a more rational allocation of resources because funds, which could have been consumed, or kept in idle deposits with banks, are mobilized and redirected to promote business activity with benefits for several economic sectors such as agriculture, commerce and industry, resulting in a stronger economic growth and higher productivity levels.

Facilitating company growth

Companies view acquisitions as an opportunity to expand product lines, increase distribution channels, hedge against volatility, increase its market share, or acquire other necessary business assets. A takeover bid or a merger agreement through the stock market is one of the simplest and most common ways for a company to grow by acquisition or fusion.

Redistribution of wealth

Stocks exchanges do not exist to redistribute wealth although casual and professional stock investors through stock price increases (that may result in capital gains for the investor) and dividends get a chance to share in the wealth of profitable businesses.

Corporate governance

By having a wide and varied scope of owners, companies generally tend to improve on their management standards and efficiency in order to satisfy the demands of these shareholders and the more stringent rules for public corporations imposed by public stock exchanges and the government. Consequently, it is alleged that public companies (companies that are owned by shareholders who are members of the general public and trade shares on public exchanges) tend to have better management records than privately-held companies (those companies where shares are not publicly traded, often owned by the company founders and/or their families and heirs, or otherwise by a small group of investors). However, some well-documented cases are known where it is alleged that there has been considerable slippage in corporate governance on the part of some public companies (Pets.com (2000), Enron Corporation (2001), One.Tel (2001), Sunbeam (2001), Webvan (2001), Adelphia (2002), MCI WorldCom (2002), or Parmalat (2003), are among the most widely scrutinized by the media).

DEBIT CARD

DEBIT CARD

A debit card is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method
to cash when making purchases. Physically the card is an ISO 7810 card like a
credit card; however, its functionality is more similar to writing a cheque as
the funds are withdrawn directly from either the cardholder's bank account
(often referred to as a cheque card), or from the remaining balance on a gift
card.



Depending on the store or merchant, the customer may swipe or insert their card
into the terminal, or they may hand it to the merchant who will do so. The
transaction is authorized and processed and the customer verifies the
transaction either by entering a PIN or, occasionally, by signing a sales
receipt.



In some countries the debit card is multipurpose, acting as the ATM card for
withdrawing cash and as a cheque guarantee card. Merchants can also offer "cashback"/"cashout"
facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their
purchase.



The use of debit cards has become wide-spread in many countries and has
overtaken the cheque, and in some instances cash transactions by volume. Like
credit cards, debit cards are used widely for telephone and Internet purchases.
This [citation needed] may cause inconvenient delays at peak shopping times
(e.g. the last shopping day before Christmas), caused when the volume of
transactions overloads the bank networks.

Types of debit card

Although many debit cards are of the Visa or MasterCard brand, there are many
other types of debit card, each accepted only within a particular country or
region, for example Switch (now: Maestro) and Solo in the United Kingdom, Carte
Bleue in France, Laser in Ireland, "EC electronic cash" (formerly Eurocheque) in
Germany and EFTPOS cards in Australia and New Zealand. The need for cross-border
compatibility and the advent of the euro recently led to many of these card
networks (such as Switzerland's "EC direkt", Austria's "Bankomatkasse" and
Switch in the United Kingdom) being rebranded with the internationally
recognised Maestro logo, which is part of the MasterCard brand. Some debit cards
are dual branded with the logo of the (former) national card as well as Maestro
(e.g. EC cards in Germany, Laser cards in Ireland, Switch and Solo in the UK,
Pinpas cards in the Netherlands, Bancontact cards in Belgium, etc.). Debit card
systems have become popular in video arcades, bowling centers and theme parks.
The use of a debit card system allows operators to package their product more
effectively while monitoring customer spend. An Example of one of these systems
is ECS by Embed International.

France

Banks in France charge annual fees for debit cards (despite card payments being
very cost efficient for the banks), yet they do not charge personal customers
for chequebooks or processing cheques (despite cheques being very costly for the
banks). This imbalance most probably dates from the unilateral introduction in
France of Chip and PIN debit cards in the early 1990s, when the cost of this
technology was much higher than it is now. Credit cards of the type found in the
United Kingdom and United States are unusual in France and the closest
equivalent is the deferred debit card, which operates like a normal debit card,
except that all purchase transactions are postponed until the end of the month,
thereby giving the customer between 1 and 31 days of interest-free credit. The
annual fee for a deferred debit card is around €10 more than for one with
immediate debit. Most France debit cards are branded with the Carte Bleue logo,
which assures acceptance throughout France. Most card holders choose to pay
around €5 more in their annual fee to additionally have a Visa or a MasterCard
logo on their Carte Bleue, so that the card is accepted internationally. A Carte
Bleue without a Visa or a MasterCard logo is often known as a "Carte Bleue
Nationale" and a Carte Bleue with a Visa or a MasterCard logo is often known as
a "Carte Bleue Internationale". Many smaller merchants in France refuse to
accept debit cards for transactions under €15.25 (equivalent to 100 French
Francs) because of the minimum fee charged by merchants' banks per transaction.
Merchants in France do not differentiate between debit and credit cards, and so
both have equal acceptance. However Visa's and MasterCard's regulations prohibit
merchants from setting minimum charge amounts. American Express's policy is to
discourage any merchant practices that create a "barrier to acceptance" and
setting minimium charge limits is such a barrier. Amex does prohibit
"discrimination" against the Amex card, which means they cannot have minimum
charge for Amex but not for Visa and Mastercard but they cannot have a minimum
charge for Visa and MasterCard because Visa and Mastercard prohibit this.





United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, banks started to issue debit cards in the late 1980s in a
bid to reduce the number of cheques being used at the point of sale, which are
costly for the banks to process. As in most countries, fees paid by merchants in
the United Kingdom to accept credit cards are a percentage of the transaction
amount[citation needed], which funds card holders' interest-free credit periods
as well as incentive schemes such as points, airmiles or cashback. On the
contrary, debit cards do not usually have these characteristics, and so the fee
for merchants to accept debit cards is a low fixed amount, regardless of
transaction amount[citation needed]. For very small amounts, this means it is
cheaper for a merchant to accept a debit card than a credit card[citation
needed]. Although merchants won the right through The Credit Cards (Price
Discrimination) Order 1990 to charge customers different prices according to the
payment method, few merchants in the UK charge less for payment by debit card
than by credit card, the most notable exceptions being budget airlines, travel
agents and IKEA[citation needed]. Debit cards in the UK lack the advantages
offered to holders of UK-issued credit cards, such as free incentives (points,
airmiles, cashback etc), interest-free credit and protection against defaulting
merchants under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Almost all
establishments in the United Kingdom that accept credit cards also accept debit
cards (although not always Solo and Visa Electron), but a minority of merchants,
for cost reasons, accept debit cards and not credit cards[citation needed] (for
example the Post Office and, until 1999, John Lewis).





Rest of Europe

In Germany and Belgium, many merchants, including most supermarkets, do not
accept credit cards[citation needed] because of the higher fees charged by their
banks. However, most merchants usually accept debit cards[citation needed],
because the fees for accepting them are much lower, for example in Germany 0.3%
with a minimum of €0.08 [1] .



In Poland, local debit cards, such as PolCard, have become largely substituted
with international ones, such as Visa, MasterCard, or the unembossed Visa
Electron or Maestro. Most banks in Poland block Internet and MOTO transactions
with unembossed cards, requiring the customer to buy an embossed card or a card
for Internet/MOTO transactions only[citation needed]. Recently however the
number of banks which do not block MOTOIO transactions on unembossed cards is
increasing.

Online and offline debit transactions

There are currently two ways that debit card transactions are processed:
online debit (also known as PIN debit) and offline debit (also known as
signature debit). In some countries including the United States and Australia,
they are often referred to as point of sale as "debit" and "credit"
respectively, even though in either case the user's bank account is debited and
no credit is involved.





Online debit ("PIN debit" or "debit"[citation
needed])

Online debit cards require electronic authorization of every transaction and the
debits are reflected in the user’s account immediately. The transaction may be
additionally secured with the personal identification number (PIN)
authentication system and some online cards require such authentication for
every transaction, essentially becoming enhanced automatic teller machine (ATM)
cards. One difficulty in using online debit cards is the necessity of an
electronic authorization device at the point of sale (POS) and sometimes also a
separate pinpad to enter the PIN, although this is becoming commonplace for all
card transactions in many countries. Overall, the online debit card is generally
viewed as superior to the offline debit card because of its more secure
authentication system and live status, which alleviates problems with processing
lag on transactions that may have been forgotten or not authorized by the owner
of the card. Banks in some countries, such as Canada and Brazil, only issue
online debit cards.



In the United States, most online debit transactions are handled by regional ATM
networks, though VISA and MasterCard each own online debit networks (Interlink
and Maestro, respectively). Online debit is usually provided as a secondary
feature on an offline debit card (Visa Check Card or Debit MasterCard); those
customers that do not qualify for offline debit cards are often issued ATM cards
with online debit capability through the regional ATM, Interlink and/or Maestro
networks.



In the United Kingdom, Solo and Visa Electron are examples of online debit
cards, which are typically issued by banks to customers whom the bank does not
want to go overdrawn under any circumstances, for example under-18s.





Offline debit ("signature debit" or "credit"[citation
needed])

Offline debit cards have the logos of major credit cards (e.g. Visa or
MasterCard) or major debit cards (e.g. Maestro in the United Kingdom and other
countries, but not the United States) and are used at point of sale like a
credit card. This type of debit card may be subject to a daily limit, as well as
a maximum limit equal to the amount currently deposited in the current/chequing
account from which it draws funds. Offline debit cards in the United States and
some other countries are not compatible with the PIN system, in which case they
can be used with a forged signature, since users are rarely required to present
identification. Transactions conducted with offline debit cards usually require
2-3 days to be reflected on users’ account balances.



In the United States and Australia, offline debit transactions are usually
referred to at point of sale as "credit" transactions even though no credit is
actually involved. This is because they are processed through the Visa or
MasterCard networks in the exact same manner as actual credit card transactions.
Since they are handled like any other Visa or MasterCard, U.S. and Australian
offline debit cards are also accepted worldwide at virtually all merchants that
accept U.S. or Australian credit cards of the corresponding brand, even if they
do not accept their own country's debit cards.



In the U.S., Visa calls its debit card Visa Check Card; MasterCard calls its
debit card Debit MasterCard. The majority of U.S. debit cards are Check Cards .
Discover Card has announced an offline debit card through its regional ATM
network Pulse; however, few if any banks offer this card. A fourth major U.S.
credit card network, American Express, does not offer debit cards.



Some merchants in the U.S. have recently been allowed to bypass the signature
requirement for "credit" sales (including offline debit) if the total sale is
under a certain dollar amount.This is based on the assumption that customers
want a fast and simple point-of-sale process, and low-value transactions are not
the activity of a fraudulent user. Some Japanese stores also allow people to pay
using a card without signing or entering a PIN code. When using this feature,
Sunkus will read the magnetic tape, reserve the money immediately, and settle
the transactions in batches up to a month later, while Lawson will read the
chip, reserve the money immediately, and settle the transactions individually
just a few days later. Some other Japanese convenience store chains also accept
card purchases with neither PIN codes nor signatures, as do some Swedish vending
machines (payphones, parking meters, bus/train ticket vending machines), either
by reading the magnetic tape (ticket vending machines) or by reading the chip
(payphones/parking meters).



In the United Kingdom, Maestro (formerly Switch) and Visa Debit (formerly Delta)
are examples of offline debit cards.This is in contrast to the U.S. where
Maestro is an online debit brand.[citation needed]



In some countries and with some banks and merchant service organisations (as of
this writing), a "credit" or offline debit transaction is without cost to the
purchaser beyond the face value of the transaction, while a small fee may be
charged for a "debit" or online debit transaction (although it is often absorbed
by the retailer). Other differences are that online debit purchasers may opt to
withdraw cash in addition to the amount of the debit purchase (if the merchant
supports that functionality); also, from the merchant's standpoint, the merchant
pays lower fees on online debit transaction as compared to "credit" or offline
debit transactions.



The fees charged to merchants on offline debit purchases -- and the lack of fees
charged merchants for processing online debit purchases and paper cheques --
have prompted some major merchants in the U.S. to file lawsuits against
debit-card transaction processors such as Visa and MasterCard. In 2003, Visa and
MasterCard agreed to settle the largest of these lawsuits and agreed to
settlements of billions of dollars.



Many consumers[Please name specific person or group] prefer "credit"
transactions because of the lack of a fee charged to the consumer/purchaser;
also, a few debit cards in the U.S. offer rewards for using "credit".[citation
needed] However, since "credit" costs more for merchants, many terminals at
PIN-accepting merchant locations now make the "credit" function more difficult
to access. For example, if you swipe a debit card at Wal-Mart in the U.S., you
are immediately presented with the PIN screen for online debit; to use offline
debit you must press "cancel" to exit the PIN screen, then press "credit" on the
next screen.



One additional problem surrounding the use of debit cards is their use at a
self-service gas pump like those common in the U.S. The customer might want to
purchase fuel on their debit card, but the pump's computer does not know how
much fuel the customer wants. The pump is activated by the customer presenting
their card to a card reader (see methods described above) and possibly entering
a PIN. At this point the pump will dispense fuel, though no sales transaction
has completed. The pump has no way of knowing how much fuel will be sold, or
more importantly, how much money is available in the customer’s debit account.
In a typical sale transaction, trying to spend more money than is available in
your account (credit or debit) will result in a "no-sale" alert to the merchant,
and the sale does not occur. At a self-serve fuel pump, the fuel is already in
the customer's tank by the time the bank knows the final sale price. Several
solutions to this problem are in place, such as denying $1 pre-authorizations
when an account holds less than $10 while still allowing transactions for
specific amounts, but the concept of delivering the merchandise before the sales
transaction plagues the debit card system.





Issues with deferred posting of
offline debit

To the consumer, a debit transaction is perceived as occurring in real-time;
i.e. the money is withdrawn from their account immediately following the
authorization request from the merchant, which in many countries, is the case
when making an online debit purchase. However, when a purchase is made using the
"credit" (offline debit) option, the transaction merely places an authorization
hold on the customer's account; funds are not actually withdrawn until the
transaction is reconciled and hard-posted to the customer's account, usually a
few days later. This is in contrast to a typical credit card transaction; though
it can also have a lag time of a few days before the transaction is posted to
the account, it can be many days to a month or more before the consumer makes
repayment with actual money.



Because of this, in the case of a benign or malicious error by the merchant or
bank, a debit transaction may cause more serious problems (e.g. money not
accessible; overdrawn account) than in the case of a credit card transaction
(e.g. credit not accessible; over credit limit). This is especially true in the
United States, where writing "hot checks" is a crime in every state, but
exceeding your credit limit is not.





Chip and PIN



In many countries, the use of PIN validated transactions with smartcard chip
readers is being strongly encouraged by the banks as a method of reducing
cloned-card fraud; to the extent that cardholder-present transactions will soon
not be possible in these countries without knowledge of a PIN, and the POS
terminal reading the smart card chip on the card.





Cards for mail, telephone and Internet use
only

Special pre-paid Visa cards for mail, telephone (MOTO) and Internet use only are
made available by a small number of banks. They are sometimes called "virtual
Visa cards", although they usually do exist in the form of plastic. An example
is 3V. Recently, these virtual cards have been increasingly issued by
non-financial institutions such as grocery and convenience stores to consumers
as a replacement for money orders (such as PaidByCash in the United States).
Such cards can be used whenever the remote store accepts Visa cards. Before
making the transaction, the customer transfers the required amount of money from
his main account to the card's sub-account using the bank's website or the
telephone. Next, the customer gives the card number and the CVV2 code to the
merchant, who authorizes the transaction electronically, as with a regular Visa
card. If there is enough money on the sub-account, the bank grants the
authorization and locks the adequate amount on the sub-account.



Such a card prevents fraud by a card number thief even if the card is not
blocked, because the customer normally does not store any money on the
sub-account and fraudulent transactions do not get authorized by the bank. For
extra security, the CVV2 code is not printed on the card but rather sent
separately to the customer in a secured envelope.



The bank also rejects local transactions, that is ones that are not made over
the Internet, mail or telephone. However, some merchants use software
incompatible with Visa regulations and send authorization requests that wrongly
tell the bank that the transaction is not a MOTO/Internet one, in which case the
bank rejects the request. Additionally, some merchants do not use electronic
authorization at all, in which case the transaction cannot be completed as well.
For these two reasons the card is unusable with a small minority of Internet,
telephone and postal stores.