2986

[ptraye]

P: Overdraft fees on debit purchases are fair only if people are informed in advance of the situations in which overdraft charges will occur, and even then only if the amount of the overdraft fee does not exceed the amount being charged on the debit card at the time of purchase.

(A1): (Pearl was never notified of the existence of any overdraft fees.)

(A2): (Banks knowingly structure overdraft fees to typically exceed the value of the debit card purchases that trigger them.)

C: The $25 overdraft fee on Pearl\\\'s $25 debit card purchase was unfair.

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what is the structure of the stimulus?

thanks.

[ohthatpatrick]

"only if" can be read as the conditional arrow, so the two rules we’re given are

Overdraft fair "”> informed in advance
Overdraft fair "”> amt. of fee doesn’t exceed amt. charged on card

(you could potentially join these as Fair "”> Informed in advance AND fee doesn’t exceed charge)

Since the conclusion is trying to prove "overdraft NOT fair", it’s trying to make use of the contrapositive of one of these rules.

We either need to hear "NOT informed in advance" or "Amt. of fee DID exceed the amt. charged on the card".

A1 gives us that first one.
A2 is not a match for the second one, and it doesn’t tell us anything specifically about Pearl’s overdraft situation (banks typically make the amt. of the fee exceed the amt. of the charge, but that doesn’t mean that banks ALWAYS do ... so maybe Pearl’s bank doesn’t)