Re: [Debconf-discuss] Discussion about debit card usage and money matters, perhaps part of the questions might be useful in the wiki as well.
On 19/12/2016 21:54, shirish शिरीष wrote:
> These are the questions I had asked of Canadians as debconf will be
> happening there (in the context of demonitization which took place in
> India)
>
> https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/demonetisation-indian-state-and-world/
I can't see how the questions below fit into that question, but I'll
take a stab at it anyway :)
> The queries/questions are as under -
>
> 1. How much of Canada’s economy is cashless i.e used to Electronic
> Money Transfer and other means (but not cash) and how much is cash,
> more in day-to-day usage and transactions. I am trying to get people’s
> perspective rather than some website which may serve only raw numbers,
> although even that would be appreciable.
Quebec has it's own interbank system called Interac
(https://interac.ca/en/about/our-company.html). Quebec is a very proud
and independent region and for many historical reasons they want to
stand on their own, which is why they support their local systems. Some
vendors will support only Interac for debit card transactions (at least
this was the case when I stayed there the beginning of this decade, it
might have changed a bit). *Most* vendors (including supermarkets like
Provigo, Metro, etc) will accept major credit and debit cards, although
Mastercard isn't accepted as widely there as Visa is. So, if you have
one of both, load up your Visa card instead of your Mastercard or get a
prepaid Visa card from your bank. They support chip cards everywhere so
don't worry about that. If you have a 5 digit pin on any of your cards
and a vendor asks you for a 4 digit pin, it will work 90%+ of the times
if you just enter the first 4 digits, but it's usually a good idea to go
change your pin to a 4 digit just to be safe.
> 2. Also what, if any charges/commission are paid to a Canadian bank
> for paying via card/electronic money transfer. I ask as India has
> reduced charges overall to 1% from 2% for making transactions upto INR
> 2000 in a day.
>
> I am sure there are and would be forex conversion charges as well as
> charges from home bank (whose card you bought) but from my limited
> experience in South Africa, there were also differences in
> charges/commission used by other bank ATMs in the same precises. Any
> idea or possibility of knowing which is good.
That depends on a few factors, but a good basic rule of thumb is, pay
for as much as you can on a Visa card and minimize your cash usage if
you want to minimize transaction costs.
ATM charges will be equivalent to South Africa on an ATM with all the
usual Visa/Mastercard/Maestro/etc symbols. If you see an ATM with only
an Interac logo, it will probably either charge you more or just won't
work with your card (but I wouldn't take the chance, it's not fun when
an ATM swallows your card in a foreign country).
> 3. There has also been recent talk of plastic notes instead of paper
> currency. Plastic notes are supposed to be more copy-proof and also
> will work for much longer time. They will not soil as paper notes do.
>
> How have countries been looking at Plastic currencies. I do suspect
> there would be issues while destroying plastic money vis-a-vis paper
> currencies.
I wouldn't worry about that, when I last stayed there they had just
introduced the $20 plastic bill. It's really nice to handle and while it
sounds weird at first, I didn't find it at all any less ergonimical than
a traditional note (I don't call it a 'paper note' since traditional
notes contain a lot more cotton and linen than actual paper).
-Jonathan
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