Beware the Invisible Button!

Last night I went by Danville's new Office Depot. Quite an impressive store! Everything is very clean and new looking. The young lady who printed my daughter's birthday invitations was very helpful especially when it came time to pay up. I'm a credit union employee who knows that when I use my debit card I need to always process it as a credit card transaction in order to avoid the significant fees charged by the point of sale machine. I can think of so many new debit card users who have asked why they were charged $1.00 every time they used it even when their total purchase might have only been $0.55! It's because when you enter your PIN at the cash register the store is going to hit you with that fee just like a foreign ATM would. Well last night, when the cash register asked for my PIN I confidently pressed the "Clear" button thinking "Ha, Ha, Ha you're not going to get my $1.00! I'm going to do a credit transaction and circumvent your little fee." When nothing happened, I tried pressing "Clear" again. And again, no change, it only wanted my PIN and nothing else. There were no other buttons anywhere on the device so I asked Alex, my helpful cashier, for help. She told me of the "invisible" button located beneath the "7" which would take me to the familiar credit card transaction screen. How clever is that? WalMart has been automatically asking for the PIN for some time but at least they didn't hide the "Credit" button! Lessons to learn from my experience:
1) Always treat your cashier with respect. If you're nice, chances are they like you more than their boss who wants to maximize the stores profits by charging that $1.00 to everyone.
2) Don't be afraid to ask for help. (unless you didn't do #1)
3) Just start pressing random places on the screen until it does what you want!

Happy Check Carding!