Why do you need to choose (or tell the worker) “credit” or “debit” when paying for something by card? Are the two cards built differently?

Question

Why do you need to choose (or tell the worker) “credit” or “debit” when paying for something by card? Are the two cards built differently?

In: Other

Answer 1

Credit – you borrow money from the bank to pay. You pay the bank later, and you get whopping interest/penalties if you don’t.

Debit – your savings account gets deducted immediately by the amount of your purchase.

The worker needs to know as these two are handled differently on the card terminal.