You Used Your Credit Card

[Seshat]

The Visa Check Card is essentially a bastard cross of a credit card and a debit card. When used, it is treated like a credit card but still tied to a bank account and subject to the fund limits and immediate removal of funds as with a debit card.

So it's exactly what I call a debit card.

As a debit card, anything I pay for is taken from my bank account right then and I have to enter my PIN to release the funds. There is currently a $300 daily limit on debit/ATM withdrawals for my account (but this thread has reminded me that I need to remind the bank to raise it since I've had the account long enough - I should probably also let them know my current phone numbers....).

That's an ATM or EFTPOS card, here.

In either instance, if my account is compromised (has happened twice, both via brute force hacks), I still have access to my funds via any bank, and once I file a formal report, a new card is sent to me which arrives less than a week later.

Also, since my card has the Visa logo, that means that I am protected by Visa's customer protection policies as regards debit cards meaning that I have a higher level of fraud protection than if it were merely a debit card. In most cases, debit cards are not as well-protected as true credit cards, however.

Yup, got all that on my handy-dandy hybrid debit/EFTPOS card. Which you'd probably call a hybrid cheque/debit card.

(Except that you Americans can't spell the word cheque. :P)