this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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Like others have said, I only have debit cards, as does the large majority in my country. Credit cards are only ever useful while traveling. And I'm not going to gift my private info to data brokers like paypal just because I want video games. Meaning I'm literally looking at the end of an era, because I don't know of any other way to purchase games on steam anymore.
Sail the seas then m8
I only use debit cards on steam. But then my debit card had a Visa logo on it so maybe it's different than what's available in your country.
You have a Visa debit card, which can work like a credit card.
My debit card does not have a credit card number I can use in online forms, and thats the only card related options steam allows in my region
Steam takes debit in certain regions. And a debit card, from the point of view of what private information is managed, is identical to a credit card. Many debit cards now even allow international use.
Sadly I'm not in one of those regions. Here are my available options:
I used to use paysafecards, they are prepaid single use codes you can buy physically
What provider is your debit card using? Is it not MasterCard or Visa? I'm genuinely curious, there are very few countries not duopolized by these two giants.
It's called Maestro, which is owned by MasterCard. Which doesn't help however since it has no credit card number
Ah! I have one of those too. It's being retired soon, though, and banks using it are now do the switch to MasterCard for newly issued cards.
(Maestro is a MasterCard brand)
Edit: Nevermind, not every country is retiring Maestro as of today.
You have way more than I do, with more flexibility. Definitely not tied to Visa and MasterCard. Skrill for example, accepts crypto and debit. PaySafe I think is outside of the Visa network and takes debit for prepaid cards as well.
I took a look at it. Skrill is just Paypal with crypto. And I already excluded data brokers. I could maybe create a pipeline by buying monero, to charge my Skrill account, to then charge my Steam account. But that's just too much of a hassle when FitGirl is right around the corner.
I can only speak for the US, but debit cards look identical to credit cards to Steam (Visa or MC, based on which one your bank uses. Look for the logo on your card).
It's not ACH, you're not giving them your banking info.
Our debit cards do not have a credit card number I could use in online payment forms.
Is Monzo not available in your country? That's basically just a prepaid card that you link to a debit card or a credit card.
Looked it up. Not available AFAIK. Thx tho
Prepaid visa’s not an option?
I've had to look up what that is, that's how rare credit cards are here. It seems to exist. However, I'm reluctant to adopt a whole new payment method for one single use case. Also Visa and Mastercard aren't necessarily more trustworthy than paypal and co.
You could pay cash for the visa gift card, and just load the money into your Steam wallet. Then the only thing they would know is that a person (presumably) bought a visa gift card and put the money in Steam.
I have never seen a visa gift card in my life but I'll keep a lookout. Thx for the suggestion
Visa and Mastercard are the reason steam removed a bunch of adult games and itch.io removed all adult games.
Because a payment processor is a moral arbiter for what you spend your money on.
You have a debit card?
Who doesn't? Basically every adult has one. Or do u pay everything in cash? And don't u get automatically a debit card when u open a giro bank account?
Debit and credit card are not the same card.
My point is you can add that into steam
What I learned from this thread is that you're either in a region that allows debit as payment method, or your debit card has a credit card number. Sadly neither of those apply to me.
Oh, huh.
Credit card system continues to suck. Sorry.
Not everyone is american
We have debit cards in America
Lots of countries use debit cards.
What's the difference ? I only ever heard of credit cards
I'm not sure, since I've never owned a credit card. Debit cards pull directly from your account and you have very limited credit available. Also you don't have card numbers etc. you could use online.
I think you’re imagining the difference between them from a technological point of view to be much bigger than it actually is.
I have debit and credit cards, Visa and Mastercard for both. Using them feels identical; one draws from your bank account balance and the other goes towards an invoice sent to you at the end of the month.
When you pay with them, the vendors themselves don’t see any private information about you, other than the card number and the way your name is written on the card. Some of my cards only have my first initial and my last name.
They can, however, track that card number across multiple purchases or with partners to build a profile.
Visa and Mastercard themselves can see a lot more, but that’s a given if you use any kind of banking services anyway.
In terms of where they’re accepted, I’ve used them all over the world and the only time it mattered which type I use, is this one flight where Ryanair was not accepting debit when I was trying to buy water… Somehow you have to borrow money to eat/drink on board, which is just silly.
Also some Citi cards let you make a virtual account number that is revocable so you never send your real card data somewhere online
You can get the same thing if you use Apple pay or Google wallet.
better to have that with the bank than yet another party with visibility into your finances.
I have a credit card, a debit card, and a savings card. But essentially they can all be just used interchangeably and you don't really have to worry about it.
The big difference between a debit card and a credit card is that you don't have to have the money in the account when you make the purchase with a credit card. But you can just think of it as a debit card and just use it like that, and not worry about the short-term zero interest loan options that they offer.
I don't really use the savings card for anything, I in fact don't know where it is, but it's essentially just a debit card with a limited amount of money. They're often used by kids whose parents top them up every now and then. As an adult they're a good way to keep a handle on your accounts and prevent you from accidentally overspending. Although obviously you can just transfer obscene amounts of money into it, so you have to have some self-control or it doesn't work.
Steam will take all of them.
As far as trusting the card companies goes, I don't really trust any of them but I also don't think they're going to sell my data, there would be too much of a scandal if they did that.
why do you think there would be even a little scandal?
A debit card in DK is exactly like a credit card in every way except one; you can't get credit, or anything related to credit.
How is that card even used if it doesn't have a number? Can you use it only physically with payment terminals? I have a debit card and it can be used just like credit card but without the loans part obviously.
Yup. Every business has them tho. The modern terminals are barely bigger than the card itself.
Ok, that sounds almost like what we call a "credit card" here (FR) except they do have the numbers for online use...
that's interesting. Here a debit and credit card are functionally identical (both have numbers etc) and only the source of the money changes