As the popularity of debit cards increases, so does the creativity of their usefulness.

Back in 2003 a company came up the idea of something called the ‘Reserve Plus’ debit card, which I personally feel is a really cool idea. Maybe you have heard about about, but I imagine many have not. Here is how it works:

After a company (aka your employer) adopts the program, employees can transfer their approved loan line into a ReservePlus account online. Later, they receive a debit card that they can use to take out as much or as little as they need of the loan amount — on average taking out 35% less than they applied for, says David Young, director of Reserve Solutions at The Reserve, the company offering the cards.

In the U.S.A, a FSA debit card only allows medical expenses. It is used by some banks for withdrawals from their FSAs MSAs and HSAs as well. They have Visa or Mastercard logos, but cannot be used as “debit cards”, only as “credit cards”", and they are not accepted by all merchants that accept debit and credit cards, but only by those that accept FSA debit cards. Merchant codes and product codes are used at the point of sale (required by law by certain merchants by certain dates in the USA) to restrict sales if they do not qualify. Because of the extra checking and documenting that goes on, later, the statement can be used to substantiate these purchases for tax deductions. In the occasional instance that a qualifying purchase is rejected, another form of payment must be used (a check or payment from another account and a claim for reimbursement later). In the more likely case that non-qualifying items are accepted, the consumer is technically still responsible, and the discrepancy could be revealed during an audit.

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 Eurocheck) 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 spending. An example of one of these systems is ECS by Embed International.

A debit card is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. Physically the card is just like a credit card; however, its functionality is more similar to writing a chech as the funds are withdrawn directly from either the cardholder’s bank account (often referred to as a check 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.