3. If I have a retail business is it a good idea to accept debit or check cashing cards?

This is definitely a great idea. The reason it is sucha great idea is because it is just like accepting a Visa or MasterCard as long as the logos of MasterCard and Visa are clearly displayed. One of the mistakes merchants make is that they treat them like a credit card sale and not like a debit transaction where the funds are verified when processed. The great advantage of debit transactions are that they are a lot less expensive and the key difference is that they need to enter a PIN number on either the terminal or external pin pad.

Online merchants can only process debit cards as a credit card transaction. Technology is improving and one day pin numbers will be able to be entered into the website. The best method for online customers is to use an online check who want to pay from their checking account.

The beautiful thing about having these transactions act like debit then credit is the funds are actually guaranteed once you recieve the approval and are not subjected to painful Visa/MasterCard regulations which means that these transactions are final and CANNOT be chargebacked by the customer. It is just like writing a check without any chance of it bouncing. If you are a retail merchant always treat these as debit transactions as this will SAVE you money and it is a final sale.