Your Debit Card Is Not A Credit Card

[Steelclaw]

Your debit card has got the Visa (or Mastercard) logo on it, it's got the magnetic strip, and it even has the right number of digits... but it's not a credit card. Think twice before you use it!

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/09/paper-or-plasti.html

Turns out debit cards don't have the same liability restrictions as credit cards. Keep this in mind when you make purchases on the net.

[Vahrokh]

Withdraw a chunk and then use your own cash in needed smaller chunks.

As archaic as it looks like, it costs less and teaches you not to go beyond your possibilities and then have to pay dearly.

[tramsan]

Just for the record, this article has questionable application outside the US. I know debit cards are treated very differently in Sweden, and most (if not all) of his reasons are moot here.

[fireblade]

don't think that is accurate for for uk either i know that you can claim money back for things over £100 on any visa card (credit or debit) and they fail to deliver (and sometimes less than that dependent on bank)

there are also a set of banking code rules on fraudulent transactions that apply to both credit and debit cards.


as to overdrafts, you should know how much you have in your account and if you spend more that that it is arguably your own fault you get charged

id just say its a case of the right tool for the right job

[AA0]

The article is pretty poorly written and is massively biased against the use of debit cards. They take the best case of credit cards vs the worst case of debit here, that said.... don't use your debit card online ever. It has no where close to the protection of a credit card (in North America at least).
In a perfect world, you would use your credit card for everything, pay it off at the end of the month, and everything would be great. However that is not the case, money management tends to be much more difficult and people cover themselves in debt by overcharging items, and simply not checking their statements for errors. You can get rewards, but again, you'll end up paying so much interest if you aren't responsible that it simply isn't worth it.

I only use my credit card for online, and larger purchases, where I can calculate my total balance as I go. My debit card is generally used for the many small purchases from gas to groceries on a day to day basis. It is paid off completely each month, and I go check to make sure everything I put on it is legit.

If you don't want overdraft protection on your account, you can remove it. If your pin has been in an area where fraudlent activities have occured, the bank will limit, and force you to change your debit card.

[gopher65]

I think the confusion comes from the different fuctions of Debit Cards. The US debit cards use both the "online" and "offline" modes for debit cards. In Canada, for instance, only Online Debit Cards are legal. These are much more secure than cards with the offline mode (which acts like an unsecured dangerous to use credit card). Never use a debit card in credit mode, even if it is legal in your country.

According to the wiki article on Debit Cards: In Canada "Debit cards usually offer some protection against loss, theft, or unauthorized use". <snip> "According to the FCAC website, revisions to the Code that came into effect in 2005 put the onus on the financial institution to prove that a consumer was responsible for a disputed transaction, and also place a limit on the number of days that an account can be frozen during the financial institution's investigation of a transaction."

In other words, "innocent until proven guilty".

We haven't tried in the past couple of years, but no Canadian stores would accept my dad's American "insecure" debit card. It isn't up to code:P. He can still use it in ABMs though.