I've been looking at the rules for credsticks, and I'm still not clear how they're suppose to work in the practical sense. For instance if a character has a credstick with a 5000 nuyen limit does that mean:
1. That it cannot accept any nuyen that would bring the total above 5,000?
2. That it cannot be used to purchase/transfer more than 5,000 nuyen, even if the character's bank account has more than 5,000 nuyen in it? If this is a limit does it mean that once the 5,000 nuyen have been spent the character has to go back to a bank?
3. For SIN verification I've seen it mentioned that street cops typically have a mid-level verification reader. What would the cops do if they encountered a character that had a credstick that used only the highest level of security (cellular scan)?

Am I getting second and third edition confused? Can anyone provide a "Dick and Jane" example of how credstick transactions would work?

Thanks in Advance!

If Dick wants to be able to transfer more than 5,000 nuyen between credsticks (either accepting nuyen or buying something) then Dick needs to get a credstick with a higher transfer limit, as indicated by color, or possibly make multiple transactions.

The amount of funds available to Dick is not an issue. If a Dick has 50,000 nuyen available to him on a non-certified credstick with a transfer limit of 5,000 nuyen, Dick could still not transfer more than 5,000 nuyen in one transaction. If Dick is using a certified credstick, he is limited by the amount of nuyen on the credstick. If Dick runs out of credit on his certified credstick, he has to go and get some more transferred on it. Unlike a normal credstick, it does not actively contact his bank/credit accounts.

If Janey has an Ebony credstick and tries to buy something from the Mall, her credstick will be read to the maximum ability of the reader. In some cases, Jane may have to go to a bank to witness the transaction with a higher-rating reader, or better yet transfer the cred into a certified credstick and hand it over.

So if I have a credstick capable of transfering 5,000 nuyen at a time, and my pal joe needs 15 grand, can I just transfer 5k to him three times in a row? If that's the case, the only difference between higher nuyen and lower nuyen credstick amounts would be how bic of a single item I can buy legally (since I'm guessing they will want their money alla t once) and how long I want to spend standing there transferring 5k nuyen over, and over, and over, and over?

Because your bank won't issue one?
Simple example:

You earn 2.500 bucks a month.
Your bank installs a credit line of 7.500 bucks. So you can go into debt up to that amount. You also get a credit card (either from the same institute or a different one, doesn't matter). This card receives a 5.000 bucks transfer limit per month.

This won't change even I you start saving some money and have a current balance of +30.000 bucks. You could spend 37.500 bucks in a rush and the bank wouldn't bother (at least not until they hear that you lost your job *eg*). But your credit card limit would still be at 5.000 bucks and any transaction beyond that would have to be granted on each individual use ...

right now i have a card that have a limit of about 10000 (not sure about the timeframe) and i cant use it to withdraw for more then that in a given timeframe. now if i drop by some shop i belive that there is no real limit to the sum i can pay with the card. allso i can overdraw my account without a problem. the reason for this limit is that when i use it to grab cash the money is gone, there is no way to trace it (unless there is some chip in it or every shop and so on keeps a record of the serial number and whre it came from) while a account to account transfer have a record in both ends so its easy to trace.

point is that if i report my card stolen and someone use it to withdraw cash then it stops at 10000 but the person using it cant be traced after he have gotten the cash. if he use it to pay for goods in a store then there is no limit but then it can be traced and refunded. the shop or owner takes the loss, not the bank as the goods where payed for with a stolen card. but if the cash is out then the bank takes the hit as its physical cash store have been drained and it must get more from the national bank...

atleast this is my take on it. it could allso be that this is a limit on unverified transfers just like some others here sayed, but that means it can be bypassed by makeing many smaller transfers rahter then one big...

Actually, credsticks allow you access to all your bank accounts and credit, so you might have 30,000 in the bank and a credicard with a max of 50,000 , and your credstick can say you can spend up to 80K

And then certified Credsticks are like cash, they just have the ¥ on them and you can spend whatever of it you want.

-Strobe

Probably to keep people from overspending. Of cousre, I see your point: I'd get a higher rating credstick too.

If jane has a credit stick with higher security than the street cops can read, she can get past their security.

The transaction limits are also a way to stop money laundering. People can only get high transaction limits if they're very legit - say, a large corp or someone with a huge public record and a lot of money. That means those transactions are very traceable, and said legit company does anything shady under a lot of scrutiny.

It also means that repeated max transactions on credsticks is transferring a larger amount of money that said person shouldn't have. Banks have software that alerts them to those types of things, and you'll get a lot of scrutiny and possibly even heat if it happens too much.

Hell, even if you have a huge credit limit if you start using your card way over and above your usual patterns you'll usually get a phone call from your bank to ask you what's up, or maybe even have it disabled on the assumption it's been stolen.

This stuff happens today, imagine what it'd be like in a Matrix-enabled society.

Thanks for all the replies! I think I'll run credsticks like this:
1. The credstick's limit is the maximum that any halfway legitimate business would accept in a day no matter how many transactions occur. The character still couldn't go over his balance. Nightly balancing of the books by banks allows businesses to trust the credstick again the next day.
2. If a character with a 5,000 nuyen credstick goes to the local car dealership to purchase a 20,000 nuyen car outright he'd have to go to a bank and get a certified credstick for the amount. (I think this would much be like businesses today calling in large checks to banks to get them cleared before allowing the customer to make the actual purchase.)
3. The credstick limit is the maximum amount of cash that the character can put in his pocket a day. providing it doesn't go over his balance.
4. The credstick a character with a SIN gets issued would be directly tied to his lifestyle level.
Street - no credstick
Squatter - Standard
Low - Silver
Middle - Gold
High - Platinum
Luxury - Ebony
(A character with a middle class lifestyle may not necessarily have 200,000 nuyen in the bank, but he could probably get loans to temporarily increase the balance so that he could arrive at the dealership and purchase a car. The bank issued a credstick based on the character's lifestyle so that the range of the account balance could be flexible enough to handle all situations.)

Does anyone see any flaws with this system? Possible improvements?

I use credsticks in a really simplified manner, simply that a character gets one stick that acts just as a credit card, except with no limit, and as many disposable sticks they want, that have to be "loaded" at the bank or from the other stick. The disposable sticks follow the color system to show their max amount, while the "ultimate" stick can be personalized however the PC wishes. Most of the time, the characters will keep one or two disposables on themselves and leave the "ultimate" at home so it doesn't get lifted

Credsticks are rather vague in the game I GM. The "spending limit" is the "automatic" feature on the credstick. (Sort of like limiting the amount an ATM would give you in real life) Anyone can use even a level 1 or better credstick reader to contact their bank and after verifying their identity (using the bank's information) can be given "permission" to transact any purchase so long as the money is available in their account + credit. This usually takes 5-10 minutes extra time. Also it is up to the account holder to the level of security he wants on an account... It is permissable in my game for a SIN holder to have a platnium credstick to be accessable by only a passcode for all transactions.

There is no longer any FICA insurance, and if a player wants to have his account balance protected he will need to purchase insurance himself. For instance, when I was GMing a game where FUCHI went bankrupt, I rolled randomly to see which banks went "belly-up"... One player got unlucky, and lost his entire credit balance and he did not have insurance.

I still allow paper currency (UCAS dollars). But since UCAS dollars fluctuate in value between $4 - $6 to the NUYEN it can cause problems when they try to use the currency (you might loose or gain money, depending on the valuation). Seattle is a part of UCAS so therefore all stores are required by federal law to accept UCAS dollars.

My UCAS dollars are blue in color, with about 20-30 identifiable markings to reduce the chance of counterfitting (special ink, paper, watermarks, holograms, microtext, etc.) They are available in denominations 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, and 10,000. The 100, 500, 1000, and 10,000 dollar UCAS bills also have a mico-chip in each bill to track its transaction history and aid in preventing counterfitting.

Credit ratings are much more "touchy-feely" depending on the character's income, house/apartment, bank balance, expenses/loans, etc... The more you have credit on a FALSE SIN, the greater a chance you have for it to fail.