How Sad

[bguy]

This brought tears to my eyes

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/woman-upset-by-humiliation-and-shame-at-dartmouth-campground/a...

[Moderator]

this has morphed into a discussion with no uniqueness to rving..... good night folks. 🙂

[beemerphile1]

pnichols wrote:
Off topic, but ... I see absolutely no use for debit cards ... except maybe for maintaining convenience if one's credit is so bad that they can't qualify for a credit card.

If you don't like having high interest credit "on the books for very long" ... then just pay off your credit card('s) balance(s) every month. Even if you're a pay-it-off-every-month kind of person, a credit card's high limit at the very least can function as an instance source of funds to use for unforseen financial emergencies, like:

1. Emergency repairs on one's stick house.
2. Emergency repairs of one's RV when on a trip.
3. Emergency medi-vac transportation and/or medical treatment a long way from home until you can work it out sometime later with your insurance company to pay for it.

i.e. Our motorhome's transmission once blew as were going to meet traveling friends to begin a major RV trip together. We needed a remanufactured transmission installed ASAP at a cost of over $5500 dollars. No way do we keep that much cash around or that much in our checking account. They had the transmission ordered and installed the next day ... so I just pulled out the credit card to no-hassle cover it, and off we went on the trip with our friends.

Those same traveling friends as above also had to replace their RV's transmission while they were with us on a trip a long way from home. They merely pulled out their credit card to cover it and we both continued our our trip in the two RVs.

IMHO even at their high interest rates - large balances on credit cards due to the servicing of emergencies accrue so little interest until a quick payoff later - that it makes it well worth it to have access to a credit card to use in otherwise stressful financial situations.

FWIW, we even use a credit card heavily each month for regular living expenses so as to build up hundreds of dollars in cash rewards of 5% on gas, 3% on groceries, and 1% on all other purchases.

So you are saying that heavy credit card use causes transmission failure? :B

[sayoung]

After being told no debit, why didn't she just bring cash ?
When I had my business, my swiper had a button to tell it whether it was a debit card but we just ran all as a CC,. Once an authorization # given I was paid & it was then CC's problem if not paid. I'm still on the fence about if I should feal sorry for the lady.

[drsteve]

schlep1967 wrote:
These ridiculous policies are put in place as scare tactics to keep people from destroying the campgrounds property. It makes people think the campground can arbitrarily charge their card if they tear something up. Think about it for just a minute. If I see a charge on my card for anything other than the price I agreed to pay for the site, I'm calling my card company and telling them I did not authorize that charge. And they will reverse it.

So basically all the policy does is penalize a family that does not have a credit card.

You may have authorized it when you paid for the site as part of the reservation agreement.

[pnichols]

Off topic, but ... I see absolutely no use for debit cards ... except maybe for maintaining convenience if one's credit is so bad that they can't qualify for a credit card.

If you don't like having high interest credit "on the books for very long" ... then just pay off your credit card('s) balance(s) every month. Even if you're a pay-it-off-every-month kind of person, a credit card's high limit at the very least can function as an instance source of funds to use for unforseen financial emergencies, like:

1. Emergency repairs on one's stick house.
2. Emergency repairs of one's RV when on a trip.
3. Emergency medi-vac transportation and/or medical treatment a long way from home until you can work it out sometime later with your insurance company to pay for it.

i.e. Our motorhome's transmission once blew as were going to meet traveling friends to begin a major RV trip together. We needed a remanufactured transmission installed ASAP at a cost of over $5500 dollars. No way do we keep that much cash around or that much in our checking account. They had the transmission ordered and installed the next day ... so I just pulled out the credit card to no-hassle cover it, and off we went on the trip with our friends.

Those same traveling friends as above also had to replace their RV's transmission while they were with us on a trip a long way from home. They merely pulled out their credit card to cover it and we both continued our our trip in the two RVs.

IMHO even at their high interest rates - large balances on credit cards due to the servicing of emergencies accrue so little interest until a quick payoff later - that it makes it well worth it to have access to a credit card to use in otherwise stressful financial situations.

FWIW, we even use a credit card heavily each month for regular living expenses so as to build up hundreds of dollars in cash rewards of 5% on gas, 3% on groceries, and 1% on all other purchases.

[schlep1967]

These ridiculous policies are put in place as scare tactics to keep people from destroying the campgrounds property. It makes people think the campground can arbitrarily charge their card if they tear something up. Think about it for just a minute. If I see a charge on my card for anything other than the price I agreed to pay for the site, I'm calling my card company and telling them I did not authorize that charge. And they will reverse it.

So basically all the policy does is penalize a family that does not have a credit card.

[drsteve]

They don't want debit cards for this purpose because there's no way to tell if there's $10,000 or $5 in the account.

[2012Coleman]

article wrote:
CBC agreed not to use Kristi's last name, as she says her family has received threats since the incident. There's also been an online backlash against the business.

Sounds to me that the owner had a policy that was more strictly enforced than she intended/realized. So for that she and her family get threatened. It was an unfortunate misunderstanding, but given the times we live in, people can be real ugly.

[mgirardo]

fj12ryder wrote:
Egads!! It wasn't the debit card or credit card!! Read and understand:

"But things went awry when she tried to pay for the booking with her ex-husband's credit card. A staff person informed her that the card had to be in the name of the person who made the booking."

I did read and understand:

MSN.com wrote:
She called the campground ahead of time to book a site and learned that her Visa debit card would not be accepted, but that she could pay on location with a credit card when she got there.

If I was told my debit card wouldn't be accepted, but I could pay with a Credit Card and the only credit card I had access to was an ex that was willing to help, I wouldn't think anything of it.

It is great the owner tried to make things right. I see that lots of times, "we are sorry we messed up, here's a coupon". What counts is what is done then and there. No way would I go back to a campground that ruined my vacation. If the owner really wants to do something nice to make up for it, the owner could book her and her daughter an all expenses paid vacation at a campground that won't try to humiliate her.

-Michael

[fj12ryder]

SARGUY wrote:
I think the campground owner did her best to resolve the problem after she became aware of it. It is sad to see a little girl be disappointed, but the lady who made the original reservation should have ensured that her lack of a credit card would not be a problem. I have experienced many situations when renting a car or booking a hotel room required a credit card, debit cards for some reason were not acceptable.

Egads!! It wasn't the debit card or credit card!! Read and understand:

"But things went awry when she tried to pay for the booking with her ex-husband's credit card. A staff person informed her that the card had to be in the name of the person who made the booking."

[SARGUY]

I think the campground owner did her best to resolve the problem after she became aware of it. It is sad to see a little girl be disappointed, but the lady who made the original reservation should have ensured that her lack of a credit card would not be a problem. I have experienced many situations when renting a car or booking a hotel room required a credit card, debit cards for some reason were not acceptable.

[fj12ryder]

The fact that it was a debit card had nothing to do with it. The problem lay in the fact that it wasn't her card, whether credit or debit. The person behind the counter got lost in minutia and blindly followed the rules.

[mgirardo]

wa8yxm wrote:
Or she could have purchased a VISA Debit card (pre paid) in her name.

Actually she couldn't. She has a debit card, but they wouldn't let her use it. They required a Credit Card in her name.

The last time I rented a car, they wouldn't let me use a debit card, had to be a credit card.

-Michael

[bukhrn]

I don't get what the problem with her Debit Card is, I use my Debit Card as Credit 99.9% of the time, I use it to make any credit card purchase.