The simplest way to see this is on a charge that is even, say $15. With BoA’s KTC, you get NOTHING. With the PayPal Debit Card, you get 15¢. Not much, but better than nothing.

Now if the charge was *.01 (the star representing any positive number), the maximum you would receive from the bank exclusively is 5¢ ($0.99 rounded up * 5% = 5¢). PayPal would only net you 1¢ if it were a $1.01 charge, 2¢ if it were a $2.02 charge, and so on. So whereas PayPal’s amount will increase with the amount that you spend, BoA’s amount will always be flat, based on the rounded up amount.

Here’s a breakdown for BoA:

Charge *.01 – *.10 = 5¢
Charge *.11 – *.30 = 4¢
Charge *.31 – *.50 = 3¢
Charge *.51 – *.70 = 2¢
Charge *.71 – *.89 = 1¢
Charge *.91 – *.99 = 0¢

So the only way you will prosper with BoA is if your charge is less than $5 AND the “cents” is 10¢ or less.

The only thing I want to know is how some of you are getting the 1.5% cash back, because I am only getting 1%.

I have two debit cards through banks, neither offer me any benifit, one charges me $7 a year and the other usually has an ATM eat my card every few months and then charges me 20 dollars for a new one. Because of this I barely use the two. On the other hand my Paypal debit card gives me 1.5% cash back and currently gives me almost 5% intrest. Because of this I use that card. Sure it promotes my use of their card, normally I would just deposit my paycheck and then pay my tuition by check, now I know better and I take the extra effort and transfer it to my paypal account and pay with that debit card. So yes I use it more than I usually would, but what is the harm when it means I get $150 back?

Same thing with this BOA card, my boyfriend can’t save money to save his life. He is barely 20 and its only the first of august and he has made 30,000 dollars this year with not a cent in savings and still has loans and credit card payments he can never get down. Why? because when a 20 year old gets a 2k check for one week of work they think they have enough money to burn and still have tons left over. After going over his checking account statement (all debit card charges) he could only account for about 1,500 dollars out of the almost 6,000 dollars he spent. Everything else was dinners, walmart, movies and basic junk. Rounding that up to the nearest dollar could give him enough money at the end of the month in his savings account to pay off his credit card bill.

What? What is this? If you don’t want to do business with a card issuer anymore, what do you do? Wouldn’t this card still show up on your credit report, account closed or not?

After Bank of America aquired Fleet, where I’d had a credit card for years, service became miserable, account errors began appearing, resoluton became time consuming and difficult.

I cancelled the card.

NOTE: Unless you are completely dis-satisfied with a card issuer, NEVER cancel cards when you reduce balances to zero, as you erase your good payment history with that creditor.

However, with current technology checks no longer have “float”. At businesses using modern quickcheck equipment the money is withdrawn the same as a debit card as soon as your check is scanned.

I find debit cards much better as with credit cards I would look at credit limit and with debit cards you are looking at actual money you have on hand.

I agree with you, so thanks for pointing that out.

My one comment is that, debit-card notwithstanding, the idea that they would move the remainder of the dollar spent to your savings account is DIFFERENT than saying “don’t spend on coffee.” Those are 2 separate ideas: You’re saying “don’t spend on irresponsible stuff,” which I agree with. BofA is saying “we’ll charge you for the remainder but just move it to your savings account.” So this could apply to someone who’s buying a $6.00 mocha, or someone who’s buying groceries for their family.

Anyway, you are right about the debit card and I take back my support of this idea. I never use my debit card unless absolutely necessary. I use my credit card and pay it off every month so it’s a free micro-loan, it builds credit, and credit cards offer consumer protections that debit cards don’t.

Thanks for pointing out my mistake, Dale.