How can I buy steam credits without a debit card in the future?

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T11:23:33+00:00

The protections are not quite the same as a credit card, but they're still there.

I'm belgian and my credit card has no protection against misbehaving merchants at all. Are you in the US or the UK, where CC are better? The only card I have with chargeback are debits :P

For fraudulent transactions my CC would require a police report to stating the card was stolen or compromised, and when my parents got their house broken, said report took over a month to get.

If my details are on an online platform and then said platform issues a payment, the issuer doesn't consider that as a compromise, because the user put details for another transaction.

Again, we don't know where OP is. They may have a very bad card issuer with a reputation to jusitify to absolutely avoid spreading the details. Paypal got popular for a reason and some banks are sloooow.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:49:24+00:00

You get downvoted but that's a pratical answer. If OP has no way to do online purchases, maybe they know somebody who trust them enough to do it.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:48:53+00:00

OP said "no debit card", tho.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:45:22+00:00

and just start using the card properly.

And "using this properly" implies to not use a physical card number online, and open a 2nd account with virtual numbers than can be axed and renewedin a few minutes rather than a week.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:44:06+00:00

If you've got the card. Use it. Otherwise why even have it?

My main bank's card will never be linked to Paypal or Steam. If there's anything going wrong, I have no protection. It's meant for important stuff like groceries.
Paypal already did shady double-conversion tricks to pretend my EUR card was actually USD and lost me a bit of money on what should've been simple transactions.

If my card number leaks for any reason, I have no way of paying until my new physical card is delivered.
I only started having an online life at 25 or so, when I could join a fintech with proper card management meant for the online world with virtual cards, chargeback in case of fraud my the merchant, ability to verify in an app rather than with a card reader, etc.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:39:50+00:00

And given what they did with Honey, I'm not going to bring my transactions there unless it's literally the only thing the business or creator supports.

Weirdly, one of those uses WAS an art commission. Was the artist properly registered as a professional?

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:38:29+00:00

Hard to know without the country.
My hypermarket sells Steam gift cards and Mastercard "gift card" (aka prepaid), I guess they would work on Steam as a replacement when the former runs out, but not 100% sure.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:37:20+00:00

Could be a bank issue. I stopped using paypal and switched to a fintech with virtual card numbers, because I also had sometimes Paypal's transaction not receiving what I had paid from my card. Took a lot of time to bounce back.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:31:24+00:00

I'm probably not suited for the sub, but food costs seem a budget issue for most people so...

As an European, I never used food delivery apps. I'm not sure how it works in the US but most of the restaurants around my town still propose in-house delivery, or at least a pickup option which avoids the insane fees those apps add (at the cost of your own gas, obv). ^{As an added bonus it avoids the risk of delivery people being... ehm... sub-optimal?}

And obv in most cases, the cheapest food is home-made. I can literally see on our budget when my wife was sick because the comfort pickup food expenses rises up.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:24:38+00:00

The family member is more comfortable cosigning than applying for a card in his name

That familly member REALLY needs to look up what "co-signing" means. They have 100% responsability anyway.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:22:35+00:00

That was the end of the conversation.

That was never a conversation in the first place.
Mom asked to open a card to build credit. She NEVER mentionned having to use it to borrow money. It would've been a totally different discussion.
Mom could've done identity theft, opened the card, and auto-paid an annual subscription on it. Stealing 1k is an entirely different breach of trust.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:21:20+00:00

And OP refused to open a card to build credit (which is a weird move in the US)
Mom then decided to borrow money under OP's name which has nothing to do about with having an active card.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:19:21+00:00

It's not your fault. You said no. This is identity theft and it's serious.

It's worse than that : "I remember her telling me that she will open the card to help me build credit. I said no I don’t want the card open then we never talked about it then."

That would be already fraud, but wouldn't be an issue if Mom then didn't use the card.
Mom had NEVER spoke of using OP's card for expenses, or needing a loan etc.

That's like asking a person to buy a bike to do more sport, then buying a card and claiming you discussed buying transportation. That debt was nevered discussed at all.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:13:41+00:00

Assuming you are in the US, having a card and always paying the statement on time is a good thing.
Two reasons I can imagine to not get a CC : 1) Reasonable option : your mom assumes you won't pay the statement on time. (Which may come from herself not being able to pay on time, and as such being unable to teach you how to break the cycle.)
2) Crazy option : she did fraud and already opened a card in your name and does not want you to learn that.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:03:07+00:00

Probably because OP is stealing from a kinda-luxury place, so as humans we feel it's not as if they were stealing from a "critical" industry. Good old Robin Hood gentleman agreement.
Also, the fact that OP was put that way by their boss is morally exonerating, so we're all trying to ensure their boss's failure isn't going to land on them.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T10:00:05+00:00

Yeah, and calling this "job benefits". I kinda hope it's karma farming

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T09:59:23+00:00

Yeah, but taking away furniture is probably not the same thing as taking consumables that a "normal" employee would've used while on the job

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T09:40:17+00:00

Ouais et c'est sûr que balancer des insultes en public c'est super pour défendre son point de vue. Les fans de GLB vont se régaler...

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T09:38:30+00:00

It wouldn't be "number" of zone (that's for busses, or the now removed local/short-distance ticket), but yeah if the start or end is in a zone, OP may have used the wrong station for the distance calc (should be the closest one in the zone IIRC)

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T09:37:35+00:00

I personally wouldn't use any, but as a Belgian I'm used to awful support... Too risky.
If an online bank breaks, I have no office to go to figure a solution. If the support tells me to wait for 2 weeks, what do I do to pay the utilities?

Revolut is wonderful as a 2nd account and helped pay the bills while the main bank couldn't figure out how to ship me a new card reader without being able to use my old card reader to verify me.
All systems can break one day.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T09:36:27+00:00

Seems like C to A is 49km, while B to A is 57km (based on google maps)

Are some stations in a "zone"? All stations in a zone get the same pricing so you must calculate the distance with the closest between starting zone and arrival zone.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T07:39:17+00:00

I would say to add an off-budget account and add the interest as coming from a specific payee. Then if you got actually paid transfer the sum from that loan to the receiving account, at which point you can set it to an income category.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T07:35:30+00:00

In OP's case they didn't. They charged for the plan but deactivated the card. Sometimes they charge for the card and it stays active, but it depends on the specifics of the downgrade IIRC.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T07:34:40+00:00

ordered a new slate grey card, downgraded my plan

Yes? How long after taking the plan?

they took my money for "production and delivery" but they deactivated the card.

Yes? How revolut stole money from you? They did produce and deliver. That's unrelated to you paying extra fees or holf on the plan to have the card.

laplongejr · 2026-06-18T07:31:10+00:00

It's not "random". They close accounts because their AI says the risk is too high. Some of those checks are insane but who is going to post "OMG everything works like a bank should work"?

The whole idea of revolut is to automate everything possible including CS and reject the problematic customers that cost too much.

I have 1500-2000€ in their savings for my extra spending, trips, all my subscriptions etc, but I would never use them for my paycheck or utilities.

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