If I read this article (Settlement Seen as Changing Ways Consumers Use Debit Cards) correctly, after the settlement between retailers and Visa/Mastercard takes effect, retailers will be free to choose whether or not to accept debit cards at all, and if they accept them, whether to require a PIN as the “signature” or an actual signature. By using a PIN, the retailer pays mere cents for the transaction, by accepting a signature the retailer pays much more. On the other end of the transaction though, the banks that hold the cards apparently are charing consumers up to $1.50 per transaction if they use a PIN to sign the transaction, instead of a signature. So, even with the settlement, the banks get their $1.50 (or more), only now the retailer isn’t forced to fork over the money.

So, why would anyone who’s minding their money use a debit card? If you put the purchase on a credit card, and pay that card off every month, you end up getting a little interest on the float in your account between when you made the purchase and when you pay your credit card bill (assuming your credit card has the typical billing grace period).