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U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog
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June 02, 2008
Mr. Bill : "Oh, Nooo!" PIRG: Don't Use Debit Cards!"
 You can't make this stuff up. It writes itself. I guess I can't fault the iconic Saturday Night Live character Mr. Bill or his creator Walt Williams for selling out to MasterCard. After all, too many of my favorite rock stars who probably need the money a whole lot less have done the same. Wendy Lee reports in Tuesday's New York Times that Mr. Bill Returns (in One Piece) to Pitch a Debit Card:
The small clay figure that appeared in "Saturday Night Live" short films three decades ago -- being dismembered, pulverized and humiliated to his falsetto cries of "Oh, nooooo!" -- will be the latest star of MasterCard’s "Priceless" campaign. He is being revived as a debit-card holder who gets roughed up but keeps on going.
Fortunately, we get the last word in the story:
But Ed Mierzwinski, the federal consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, said that debit cards were far from a panacea. "If you’re using plastic, you tend to spend more than when using cash," he said, adding that cardholders can incur heavy fines if they overdraw their accounts. Mr. Mierzwinski also said that debit transactions -- and the right to dispute them -- are not legally protected the way credit card transactions are. "Zero liability promises on debit cards are only promises, they’re not the law," he said. Our previous blog on dangerous debit cards-- they'll leave you screaming "Oh, nooooo!"
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at June 2, 2008 06:52 PM
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