On 5/1/2015, I had 5 out of 12 Walmart transactions post as debits. You have to keep close track of your credit transactions or you may be short on your rewards checking account requirements. Look at your receipts immediately to verify they were credit and not a debit transactions (especially Walmart). On the Walmart receipt, look for the TOTAL. The line under the TOTAL will say DEBIT TEND (debit) or MCARD TEND (credit). I have only experienced this at Walmart. Sometimes, they do not give you the option to use it as a credit card. It automatically processes it as a debit even though you press credit card. There is no way to cancel it. You would have to go to customer service for a refund. It did the same thing at self-service and the cashier. The cashier and the self-service attendant could not make it process differently either. It was not debit card or bank specific. I used different 4 cards for 3 transactions each as usual. 5 of the 12 transactions were processed as debits. This is the first time I have had this problem at Walmart. They may have changed something about their system.
The long answer: I get cash back for using my card for signature purchases, and these changes were taking that from me by forcing things through as Pinless Debits. I used to be able to just say no to cash back and then change the payment type to credit, but that hasn't been working since the changes that Wal-Mart made.
I discovered that if I swipe my card ***before*** all of my items have been scanned, then the system will ask me if I want cash back as usual, and after hitting "No" and selecting "Change payment" and then "Credit" and it will actually go through as Credit. If you don't pre-swipe, then you may get those same options on the screen, but the system forces it through as Pinless Debit. Pre-swiping is the key!
Of course any transaction over $50 can go through as Credit just fine, but I make lots of smaller purchases using my PayPal debit card, and I want my cash back for every one of them. Try it at your local Wal-Mart and see how it works for you. Hope this is helpful to someone. :-)
Eric
Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a way to prevent pin-less debits from occurring with the new card.
I believe that the way I was getting it to work before (swiping the card before all items were scanned at the register) used to work because the network didn't know what the final amount would be until the cashier totaled everything up. To the network, it was similar to swiping your card at the gas pump where the total charge is unknown until you stop pumping, then the charge is sent through later.
With the new chip cards, this method no longer works. It appears that the reader sits there and waits until it is given the final total, -then- it accesses the network and forces the transaction through as pin-less debit if it can.
For me, this means I'm going to have to switch to an actual credit card in order to get my cash back from here on out. I see Paypal is offering a 2% cash-back card right now, so I'll probably go that route, since my primary card was already a Paypal business debit.
At Target, they're being sketchy. They don't give you the option for credit/debit, but if you just press enter at the PIN screen without inputting the PIN, it will process through the credit network, and give you your 1%.
I think I opened it when United Federal reduced their rate from 6.5 or 6.25 in 2008. They have continued with 3% throughout the financial crisis and have not change any of the requirements.
In the winter, I can pay my gas bill $1 at a time repeatedly but 6-7 months of the year, I use no gas and my bill is only $8 or something so thats just 8 transactions. I could also pay AT&T that way but I prepaid for the next 10 months because of a 5% cashback deal. I find myself prepaying a lot of things when the rewards for doing so justify it. My 2% credit card is 3% for the next 2 weeks because I went over my average spend so Im considering paying my taxes by credit card too. Never done that before but did not realize the federal fee was down to 1.99% either.