Debit

Bill Gant no longer carries rolls of quarters to pay for the 50-cents-an-hour metered parking in downtown Bel Air. Instead, he carries a debit card for use with digitized meters that the town debuted this month. The Bond/Thomas Street parking lot has 17 new digitized parking meters. Designed for convenience, the new black meters accept nickels, dimes, silver dollars and quarters. But the devices also take the Smartcard, which works like a debit card that can hold up to $100. "I was putting quarters in the meter for 20 years," Gant said after sliding his card into a meter when leaving recently.

Wal-Mart failed to get approval for a bank. But the giant discount chain is effectively building one anyway. Wal-Mart said yesterday that it would rapidly expand the financial services offered in its vast network of stores, extending the reach of its retailing empire into its shoppers' wallets and the traditional turf of the American banking industry. Over the next year, the company plans to introduce a prepaid debit card, intended for low-income consumers, and install money centers - which currently offer check cashing, bill paying and money order services - into at least 1,000 stores, up from 225 now. The moves are seen as a precursor to even wider offerings, like mortgages and home equity loans, which could turn Wal-Mart into a significant force in the banking world.

At least 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by hackers who accessed the computer systems at the TJX Cos. Inc. at its headquarters in Framingham, Mass., and in the United Kingdom over a period of several years, making it the biggest breach of personal data ever reported, according to security specialists. Details are still sketchy, but TJX said unauthorized software placed on its computer systems stole at least 100 files containing data on millions of accounts from systems that process and store transaction information in Framingham and Watford, United Kingdom.

When you watch Janne O'Donnell and Trisha Johnson talk, you almost vow on the spot to never use a credit card again. Each is a mom with a college-age child who committed suicide while loaded with credit-card debt. They are among many people interviewed in a new film documentary, Maxed Out, which explores the U.S. consumer's addiction to debt and unapologetically blames the industry as making it nearly impossible for people to ever get clean. But Americans' credit problems cannot be blamed entirely on the banks, of course.

Banks should be required to warn customers whenever an ATM or debit card withdrawal is about to put their bank account in the red, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. In a new study released last week, the nonprofit asserts that banks have the technology to inform customers when a particular transaction will overdraw an account and trigger a fee, but are reluctant to do so because it would slash revenue. Industry experts say overdraft fees are the biggest single source of fee income in retail banking.

After a meal at Potomac Pizza in Gaithersburg, diners can swipe their debit cards, punch in their pin number and pocket their receipt - all without leaving the table. That's thanks to a new technology that allows customers to pay at the table with debit cards. The technology, developed by Columbia-based Micros Systems Inc. and San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone Inc., is being tested at the Maryland restaurant and launched in the next two months at dozens of restaurants around the country.

The future of two great American habits - drinking sodas and charging stuff on credit cards - is likely to be increasingly intertwined as vending machines that accept plastic become more prevalent. It's a concept that inevitably raises questions about when a convenience might become an enabler, encouraging consumers to drink more soda or buy more candy, while spending money they don't necessarily have. Within the past two weeks, MasterCard and a Coca-Cola bottler have finished rolling out 1,000 vending machines that accept all forms of payment, including credit and debit cards, in the Philadelphia area so consumers with the urge to caffeinate can't be denied if they lack cash.

This holiday season, about one-third of shoppers are expected to use a debit card for purchases rather than a credit card in an effort to keep spending in check. It would mark the second year in a row that debit cards have significantly pulled ahead of credit cards as the payment of preference around the holidays, according to a recent survey by the National Retail Federation. The use of credit cards - the choice of about 28 percent of shoppers - has been dropping and this year is expected to fall behind cash.

A mean gumbo, turkey with fixings and a couple of toys can go a long way toward healing homesickness and holiday blues. That's what Baltimore Salvation Army administrators figured in organizing yesterday's holiday giveaway for Maryland's Hurricane Katrina evacuees. About 100 families passed through the organization's warehouse in Baltimore to pick up $50 debit cards for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals and $100 Wal-Mart gift cards for Christmas presents. Families with children also could choose gifts from two long tables loaded with donated stuffed animals, dolls, toy cars, tea sets, footballs and other juvenile delights.

Consumers can earn all sorts of rewards for using plastic, from frequent-flier miles and cash back to contributions to a college plan when charging purchases at certain merchants. Two new reward programs are tapping into that nagging feeling that we should be saving more. The programs promise to squirrel away a bit of money into savings accounts for consumers who use American Express credit cards or Bank of America debit cards. Americans have plenty of reasons to build a nest egg. College for the kids.