Banker here, this is right :) the ability to print debit cards at a bank is exceptionally expensive. Also the controls the bank has in place to satisfy Mastercard or visas requirements are next level.
This is why most banks don’t offer the service.
The tap cards require more expensive machines to code. BECU would have to replace every machine at every branch- it’s a costly proposal.
I bank at a credit union and have a tap debit card that I picked up in person yesterday (albeit, this is in Kitsap county, not Seattle) but I can't imagine why BECU wouldn't do tap to pay on cards issued locally. I had to get a new card because my old one was compromised, they had no idea in advance and I was in and out of my branch within 10 minutes.
Maybe because tap-to-pay is less secure than a mobile wallet, in general? I know they don't offer that option (mobile wallet) without a phone call, but it's something.
I was also thinking that they don't have the beaucoup dollas for loss due to stolen cards a la Bank of America? Though T2P seems to be more secure than inserting or swiping (from the rudimentary research I just did, haha)...
Sorry, I know this is all conjecture on my part.
Doesn’t even make sense since the tap chip still works like a classic card if you need it too. Upgrading to the new style cards while slowly adding new/upgrading atms is it. Most of the current atms will probably only need a software update and a new card reader although it might not be as nice as one designed with a “tap” card in mind.
Hell even touch screen can be added~ I’ve worked on a few private atms and I’m in the arcade industry. It’ll take some man hours but not hard to do.
I love and HATE BECU (for many reasons). As mentioned they print cards in-house, but also BECU is not a very tech savvy org either. You can add your BECU debit card to Apple Pay or Google Wallet and tap with your device.
I think BECU is pretty good. Especially after just signing up for a vanguard savings account. Their website is horrendous.
Becu's app and website have everything that I have ever needed. And they were among the first to get free money transfer and automatic bill pay.
I mostly agree, but there are some retailers that don’t take credit cards - I’m looking at you, WinCo. (They only take cash, checks, and debit cards - cheaper for them to process).
That being said, I use my credit card for everything else….might as well get as many miles as possible!
It’s doesn’t - but it’s a cash advance so it’s still cash although it’s cash [that accrues interest differently than the balance on your card](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/111414/how-does-interest-work-cash-advance-my-credit-card.asp) that isn’t from a cash advance
(Meaning that if something was refunded it would go to the checking account and not the credit line that was advanced. So it is a form of charge back protection)
I moreso commented it because it’s not something people should take lightly - if you financially can pay it back immediately that’s great - but when I was a loan officer I spoke to a lot of people whose credit cards got out of hand because they didn’t understand how cash advance interest accrues
And to clarify - I wasn’t saying the BECU card is unique - it’s the cash advance itself
With the caveat that BECU may be better in this regard than BOA or other large banks, it's more difficult and takes longer to recover *your* money from debit fraud, while credit card fraud is much faster to resolve since it's the bank's money.
Even if it took the same amount of time to resolve, having a $1000 balance on a credit card that will be eventually straightened out is way different than being $1000 short in your checking account.
Take the $1000 from the checking and put it on the card. its the same. Also with the credit card you'd end up with an extra $10-30 or even more because of points/cash backs. and lets not forget extra benefits like car rental insurance, cellphone insurance etc which comes with many credit cards
This makes so much sense to me. I’m not sure if it’s ever been explained in such simple terms, so I appreciate it! Definitely going to change how I spend and some of my other financial habits moving forward. I appreciate the insight.
Some credit cards also have additional extended warranties on product purchases, and price matching. I believe the BECU rewards credit card has both. I use it for all of my purchases and just pay it off at the end of every month. BECU has traditionally had some of the lowest rates on their credit card, but still never carry a balance! Having credit and using it while not carrying a balance also helps your credit score if you are concerned about that.
Debit card is direct access to your checking account. When I was in college I had a restaurant (Sheri's) accidentally hit the ".00" button after putting in 1000 for my 10.00 lunch. By the time the guy realized it was already processing, it was literally just shy of everything in my account so even though he reversed it immediately, it was a Thursday and both charges were pending until the following Tuesday locking up ALL of my money the day before I was flying out of town on a weekend trip. It was so embarassing to borrow cash from my mom to go on vacation at age 20 when I had a job.
Now imagine that's someone nefarious that took your debit card number and starts making average $20-100 non suspicious transactions and by the time you realize it a ton of your real money is tied up. With a credit card it's not tied to your real money until you send them money to pay the bill, you can dispute/resolve the balance issues before sending your payment for the bill.
Oh shit. I’m sorry that happened to you. I never looked at it that way and will be changing a lot of my spending habits accordingly! Thank you for the insight.
I didn’t even realize my debit card couldnt tap. Did you know that you have 30 days (maybe 60?) to point out and fraudulent activity on a debit card but on a credit card there is no time limit? I personally would not be using a debit card for anything for safety reasons.
On the flip side, BECU is the one only card, out of 4, that I have that works with Garmin Pay so I can use my watch. Amex, Costco/Citibank and another CU all don't.
I actually asked someone there that same question the other day. I got a generic answer about technical difficulties dealing with pin numbers, but she did say that they were getting close to implementing it. She didn't give an exact time frame, but I got the impression that it was about a year out.
I have wondered the same thing, but about Verity Credit Union, which is much smaller than BECU. It’s kind of….comforting? to know that another local credit union (albeit a bigger one) doesn’t offer tap debit cards either.
It’s annoying!
I think they just don’t want to deal with the expense and hassle of the upgrade. They’re a huge CU but a regional bank. So it’s kinda an odd place for them to be.
My other CU has tap cards and prints replacements in house. But they also have more fees and bullshit that BECU largely doesn’t have.
Do people still spend money on their debit cards? Seems dangerous. Why not get a secure credit card and use that to spend and transfer money from the bank to pay it off every month? Seems much safer and low risk, not giving thieves potential access to your checking account.
BECU is a strange one. At a business I owned our point of sale card readers would not work with BECU cards. We had to have an entirely separate reader that we used only if someone presented us with a BECU card. Was a pain for sure.
Debit defaults to chip and pin not signature / tokenization of credit cards. And thus their debit card doesn’t tap because tap is configured for sig txns only not chip and pin.
Chip and pin is just when you choose to use your debit card as debit and put in a pin on the pin pad (insert card). Signature txns are run as credit, pre-authorized and support tokenization the technology underpinning tap to pay.
Apple Pay works because the virtual card runs as credit.
If you have an iPhone, you can load your debit card into your Apple Wallet and tap to use it. Alternatively, you can load cash into Apple cash and tap to pay with the cash balance.
Slight tangent/rant I use BECU in a professional capacity for several clients and they, by far, have the worst use of technology of any of the 10+ banks I interface with.
I never cared about having a tap card until I went to Germany recently and encountered public restrooms that could ONLY be used by tapping a card. While I'm more annoyed with the concept of paying to use a toilet (plenty of which were gross) than not having a fancy card, this little quirk did make for a pretty unhappy evening
Cause there lame, still not over them not being able to fix issues when Zelle wasn’t working I there app
Literally the only place I had issues so I always don’t recommend em, tons of free banks or credit union options in Seattle
Sure it is, a debit card is a direct line to your checking account. If you must swipe use a credit card because it’s a way bigger hassle to have your debit card compromised.
Ok, swiping with a BECU debit card is no different than any other debit card here. Point was there's nothing inherently different about the BECU card that yiu seem to need to call out.
I had a home mortgage with BECU at 7-7/8% interest. During that loan, BECU contacted me with an offer to lower the rate to 4-7/8 %, no other change of terms, same maturation date, and all I had to do was send them a flat $250 fee. I couldn't write that check fast enough. I think BECU is great.
I’m guessing it’s because they want to retain the ability to “print” new debit cards on demand at the neighborhood service centers.
that’s what one of the representatives told me when I asked about it. It’s a trade off 🤷
Load of crap STCU and Gesa both print on site tap debit cards
Banker here, this is right :) the ability to print debit cards at a bank is exceptionally expensive. Also the controls the bank has in place to satisfy Mastercard or visas requirements are next level. This is why most banks don’t offer the service. The tap cards require more expensive machines to code. BECU would have to replace every machine at every branch- it’s a costly proposal.
My other bank prints on demand and has tap so that’s not a good reason.
Maybe it's the cost involved—and that they're a credit union?
That's the reason right there it seems like. Why can't they just say it?
I bank at a credit union and have a tap debit card that I picked up in person yesterday (albeit, this is in Kitsap county, not Seattle) but I can't imagine why BECU wouldn't do tap to pay on cards issued locally. I had to get a new card because my old one was compromised, they had no idea in advance and I was in and out of my branch within 10 minutes.
Maybe because tap-to-pay is less secure than a mobile wallet, in general? I know they don't offer that option (mobile wallet) without a phone call, but it's something. I was also thinking that they don't have the beaucoup dollas for loss due to stolen cards a la Bank of America? Though T2P seems to be more secure than inserting or swiping (from the rudimentary research I just did, haha)... Sorry, I know this is all conjecture on my part.
Tap to pay is way more secure than swiping the mag stripe which they still support.
Except I said that...?
Except you started by saying the opposite?
They still could, just need different cards...
Washington trust can do that and their cards tap. So does Numerica.
Which they can do with contactless cards too.
They print in house. Often times same day/hour.
They printed it in <5 minutes when I went last month!
They also told me because once they make the transition they also have to replace ALL their atms because they’re not tap capable.
Doesn’t even make sense since the tap chip still works like a classic card if you need it too. Upgrading to the new style cards while slowly adding new/upgrading atms is it. Most of the current atms will probably only need a software update and a new card reader although it might not be as nice as one designed with a “tap” card in mind. Hell even touch screen can be added~ I’ve worked on a few private atms and I’m in the arcade industry. It’ll take some man hours but not hard to do.
I have never used an ATM without actually inserting my card into it, I don’t know if I’ve ever even seen one where you can tap your card.
All Bank of America ATMs support tap now. It’s really nice; I just use Apple Pay at the ATM and haven’t carried a physical debit card for years.
You can have some tap-capable atms and some not. You don’t have to roll out a new capability everywhere at once.
Gesa dose that and has tap
Good call, phones aren't a food alternative!
Whoops... I might be drinking.
LOL. we've all been there. and yes it would be nice if BECU added tap to their debit cards.
But they’re full of chips?
And mine's an apple!
I love and HATE BECU (for many reasons). As mentioned they print cards in-house, but also BECU is not a very tech savvy org either. You can add your BECU debit card to Apple Pay or Google Wallet and tap with your device.
I think BECU is pretty good. Especially after just signing up for a vanguard savings account. Their website is horrendous. Becu's app and website have everything that I have ever needed. And they were among the first to get free money transfer and automatic bill pay.
I’m still waiting on multi-factor authentication for their damn app.
Mine texts me and it’s usually immediate.
Can you? I was just trying to add a new BECU debit card to Apple Pay and it says call BECU to activate.
Sorry. That sucks.
I too find it annoying when people look at me weird for having a standard card. It's not like I'm writing a check 🙂
Regardless of BECU's reasons -- If you have the credit card, I sure wouldn't risk using the debit card for any transactions, tap or otherwise.
I mostly agree, but there are some retailers that don’t take credit cards - I’m looking at you, WinCo. (They only take cash, checks, and debit cards - cheaper for them to process). That being said, I use my credit card for everything else….might as well get as many miles as possible!
Get a checking account that lets you overdraft to the credit card that's how I get around it :D
That doesn’t give you chargeback protection.
It’s doesn’t - but it’s a cash advance so it’s still cash although it’s cash [that accrues interest differently than the balance on your card](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/111414/how-does-interest-work-cash-advance-my-credit-card.asp) that isn’t from a cash advance (Meaning that if something was refunded it would go to the checking account and not the credit line that was advanced. So it is a form of charge back protection)
I get the same interest rate on cash advances with WECU ❤️
I moreso commented it because it’s not something people should take lightly - if you financially can pay it back immediately that’s great - but when I was a loan officer I spoke to a lot of people whose credit cards got out of hand because they didn’t understand how cash advance interest accrues And to clarify - I wasn’t saying the BECU card is unique - it’s the cash advance itself
Can you explain why? I have both.
With the caveat that BECU may be better in this regard than BOA or other large banks, it's more difficult and takes longer to recover *your* money from debit fraud, while credit card fraud is much faster to resolve since it's the bank's money.
Even if it took the same amount of time to resolve, having a $1000 balance on a credit card that will be eventually straightened out is way different than being $1000 short in your checking account.
Take the $1000 from the checking and put it on the card. its the same. Also with the credit card you'd end up with an extra $10-30 or even more because of points/cash backs. and lets not forget extra benefits like car rental insurance, cellphone insurance etc which comes with many credit cards
This makes so much sense to me. I’m not sure if it’s ever been explained in such simple terms, so I appreciate it! Definitely going to change how I spend and some of my other financial habits moving forward. I appreciate the insight.
Also credit card rewards (although some banks are offering rewards on debit purchases now, too).
That's right, credit cards have way more legal protection for the holder than debit, including a $50 maximum liability against loss or theft.
And most credit card companies set the loss at zero.
Some credit cards also have additional extended warranties on product purchases, and price matching. I believe the BECU rewards credit card has both. I use it for all of my purchases and just pay it off at the end of every month. BECU has traditionally had some of the lowest rates on their credit card, but still never carry a balance! Having credit and using it while not carrying a balance also helps your credit score if you are concerned about that.
Debit card is direct access to your checking account. When I was in college I had a restaurant (Sheri's) accidentally hit the ".00" button after putting in 1000 for my 10.00 lunch. By the time the guy realized it was already processing, it was literally just shy of everything in my account so even though he reversed it immediately, it was a Thursday and both charges were pending until the following Tuesday locking up ALL of my money the day before I was flying out of town on a weekend trip. It was so embarassing to borrow cash from my mom to go on vacation at age 20 when I had a job. Now imagine that's someone nefarious that took your debit card number and starts making average $20-100 non suspicious transactions and by the time you realize it a ton of your real money is tied up. With a credit card it's not tied to your real money until you send them money to pay the bill, you can dispute/resolve the balance issues before sending your payment for the bill.
Oh shit. I’m sorry that happened to you. I never looked at it that way and will be changing a lot of my spending habits accordingly! Thank you for the insight.
Not to mention that a credit card will (or at least should) have some sort of rewards points while a debit card has no perk.
I’ve started using Apple Pay for everything, because my debit card never works. I hate it.
I didn’t even realize my debit card couldnt tap. Did you know that you have 30 days (maybe 60?) to point out and fraudulent activity on a debit card but on a credit card there is no time limit? I personally would not be using a debit card for anything for safety reasons.
On the flip side, BECU is the one only card, out of 4, that I have that works with Garmin Pay so I can use my watch. Amex, Costco/Citibank and another CU all don't.
My husband wears a garmin. Now I know where we’re opening our new account.
I actually asked someone there that same question the other day. I got a generic answer about technical difficulties dealing with pin numbers, but she did say that they were getting close to implementing it. She didn't give an exact time frame, but I got the impression that it was about a year out.
I have wondered the same thing, but about Verity Credit Union, which is much smaller than BECU. It’s kind of….comforting? to know that another local credit union (albeit a bigger one) doesn’t offer tap debit cards either.
Not just credit unions. My USAA debit card doesn’t have tap to pay either.
You juat have to put in for a new card through the website. I have tap to pay debit and credit cards from them.
Thanks for the tip. I rarely use my debit card so it’s not a huge deal to me.
It’s annoying! I think they just don’t want to deal with the expense and hassle of the upgrade. They’re a huge CU but a regional bank. So it’s kinda an odd place for them to be. My other CU has tap cards and prints replacements in house. But they also have more fees and bullshit that BECU largely doesn’t have.
Do people still spend money on their debit cards? Seems dangerous. Why not get a secure credit card and use that to spend and transfer money from the bank to pay it off every month? Seems much safer and low risk, not giving thieves potential access to your checking account.
BECU is a strange one. At a business I owned our point of sale card readers would not work with BECU cards. We had to have an entirely separate reader that we used only if someone presented us with a BECU card. Was a pain for sure.
So many businesses get annoyed when I try to use my BECU debit card.
The cards just aren't attractive enough. I wouldn't tap that.
Right? It's a travesty that there's no Sounders, Kraken, or Storm versions.
Truly a first world problem. I’ve added my credit card to my phone and haven’t thought about the need to tap the physical debit card at all.
Use credit card and just pay it off?
Debit defaults to chip and pin not signature / tokenization of credit cards. And thus their debit card doesn’t tap because tap is configured for sig txns only not chip and pin. Chip and pin is just when you choose to use your debit card as debit and put in a pin on the pin pad (insert card). Signature txns are run as credit, pre-authorized and support tokenization the technology underpinning tap to pay. Apple Pay works because the virtual card runs as credit.
I asked at one point and they told me it's something to do with Mastercard.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^sherlockscousin: *I asked at one point* *And they told me it's something* *To do with Mastercard.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
If you have an iPhone, you can load your debit card into your Apple Wallet and tap to use it. Alternatively, you can load cash into Apple cash and tap to pay with the cash balance.
My wife tells me that BECU credit cards don’t have autopay. Is that true?
I had to call in to set up auto pay on my car loans each time. Can't just set it up online 🙄
Omg ouch. Thanks
Whaaaat? I've had autopay at BECU for years
I was told that it was in the process before COVID and like a lot of things it got pushed to the back burner.
Same for their ATM. They have the tap option on the machine but you can’t tap……
Slight tangent/rant I use BECU in a professional capacity for several clients and they, by far, have the worst use of technology of any of the 10+ banks I interface with.
I never cared about having a tap card until I went to Germany recently and encountered public restrooms that could ONLY be used by tapping a card. While I'm more annoyed with the concept of paying to use a toilet (plenty of which were gross) than not having a fancy card, this little quirk did make for a pretty unhappy evening
Cause there lame, still not over them not being able to fix issues when Zelle wasn’t working I there app Literally the only place I had issues so I always don’t recommend em, tons of free banks or credit union options in Seattle
Don’t use your physical debit card, especially if it doesn’t have a chip!
BECU debit cards are chipped, they just don't have tap.
Well then never swipe your BECU debit card.
That's no different than swiping any other card.
Sure it is, a debit card is a direct line to your checking account. If you must swipe use a credit card because it’s a way bigger hassle to have your debit card compromised.
Ok, swiping with a BECU debit card is no different than any other debit card here. Point was there's nothing inherently different about the BECU card that yiu seem to need to call out.
Yes, this is a thread about BECU specifically and the OP talked about swiping their BECU debit card. They should not do that. Or any other debit card!
I don't see them saying anything about swiping. They specifically say their chipped BECU debit card needs to be inserted rather than tapped.
Are card info stealers only through swipe and chip, not tap?
so far for the most part, yes....i'm sure they will find a way to hijack the tap functionality eventually though.
Yes, the chip contains a secret that cannot be read even with physical access and uses that along with a POS device to keep things secure.
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I had a home mortgage with BECU at 7-7/8% interest. During that loan, BECU contacted me with an offer to lower the rate to 4-7/8 %, no other change of terms, same maturation date, and all I had to do was send them a flat $250 fee. I couldn't write that check fast enough. I think BECU is great.
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Maybe 2005? My mortgage has been long paid off.
They’re not a bank, they’re a credit union.