Terms of Convenience

Now would be a useful place to say that the terms credit and debit card are, in part, terms of convenience. It is absolutely irrelevant whether there is a card, a mobile device of some sort or simply an account number that can be copied and pasted into the payment page of a website. It is irrelevant, in all but one respect, whether the service is provided by a bank or a secondary lender, and whether that service is provided directly or through an intervening technology company. The one respect in which is is relevant is the extent to which the provider of services is regulated and whether that regulation is readily available to customers of the services used and who has access to, and the right to use, the associated data.