expressions - What is it called when you “refill” a debit card?


How it is called (in the US) when you go to the bank or an ATM to add cash to your VISA/MasterCard debit card? That is, when you add cash to the bank account which is tied to that card.


Is it either of these two, or is it something else?



  • to refill my debit card

  • to add funds to my debit card



Answer



Your question reveals a mindset about debit cards that simply doesn't exist in the US. Here, bank accounts came first, many many decades before anyone dreamed of electronic transactions. Thus, people have debit cards because they have bank accounts, not the other way around. You don't go out and get a debit card; you go out and open an account at a bank. This also means that you simply don't talk about refilling a debit card, because it was never filled in the first place.


You can say something like "I need to put money in my account" or "I need to go to the bank to make a deposit", but at no point would you mention your debit card, any more than you would mention your car keys when you're planning to drive somewhere.


There are some debit-card-like things that do have an upper limit and can be "refilled" — store gift cards, whatever they're calling food stamps nowadays, MetroCards, that sort of thing — but they're not called "debit cards", at least not without qualification.


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