Fraud Protection - Credit v. Debit

[kjm79]

I know this might belong in the Credit in the News forum, if a Mod wants to move it I completely understand.  I thought it might be a little more useful here. 

Buried in this story is a good reminder about the differences in fraud protection when using a credit card vs. a debit card.  Good reminder for people who stick to using only debit. 

http://news.yahoo.com/former-army-reservist-says-bank-america-left-him-143641676--abc-news-money.htm...

[FrugalRican]

I work for a financial institution and I'll tell you right now, I trust the fraud protection (BY FAR) on my credit cards a lot more.

[kjm79]

Completely agree with you FR.  I see in these forums sometimes how people don't think they need a credit card and they just use their debit for everything.  I WAS one of those people many years ago.  This would be a good reason why.  You can still pay cash for everything, just use a credit card and pay it off.  The added protection, IMO, is totally worth it. 

[john398]

I am thinking about asking my bank for just an ATM debit card and not the Visa Debit card I currently have, I wonder if Chase still offers that

[Anonymous]

Wow what a story. I am glad I was able to move away from my debit card last year. My debit card expires in a few months and I will definitely ask if I can have an ATM card instead.

I feel bad for the guy but telling a cab driver to take you to any night club is a very bad idea and just screams "I am a clueless tourist"

I have heard of scams in europe and especially turkey and greece where people try to get friendly with clueless tourists and offer to take them to a club, then grossly overcharge the tourist to the tune of hundreds of euros and threaten to get the police involved if you don't pay.

Nowadays with google maps and ipads and stuff it is always best to know where you are going ahead of time, you are less likely to get scammed if you act like you belong.

[kjm79]

There are few flags in the story for me personally, especially him not keeping the receipt.  I can tell you that when my DH was deployed he saved every single receipt, no matter how big or small, even if he bought gum!  I know he also mentioned that his buddies all had shoe boxes of receipts.  Comes in handy at tax time.  This particular reciept may not have helped with taxes, but it could've helped his case.  With his carelessnes, I'm just not sure I think it's the bank (even if it's BoA) or Visa's responsibility to reimburse $25k on THESE particular facts.  The proof just isn't there.  A single deployed soldier who happens to end up in a forgien nightclub/stripclub while on leave, sounds like he was looking for fun, may very well have found it.  Regardless, I hope everything works out for him and do appreciate his service. 

[MattH]

My wife and I use credit cards precisely because they have much better consumer protections than debit cards; we don't much care about the interest rates because the only interest we paid in 2011 was for the mortgage. Aside from the legal difference, there's also a basic difference in mechanisms: with a debit transaction the money instantly leaves the checking account and could make other transactions bounce and so forth. Some years ago my wife was hit by check fraud, which the bank did not detect even though the signature looked nothing like hers, and getting the money back was a major hassle. When somebody has attempted fraud with one of our credit cards, the credit card company's security department has called us to ask us whether a suspicious purchase was legitimate.
…
I can remember a time when banks actually did look at signatures, when I was a teenager our local branch manager phoned my father's office at the University where he taught: "Professor H, we have a check here that looks fishy, do you recognize the name…" But that was then, this is when we supposedly have a "postindustrial service economy" in which actual service seems increasingly rare.