When you say Western, you mean American. Almost nowhere in Europe is buying on credit the norm, but debit cards or credit cards that debit your bank account directly.
Also, if you pay the balance in full every month, you don't get charged interest.
If you're disciplined, then you'll use credit cards for every cashless purchase.
It might be an added benefit but in the end you do pay a couple percent on each purchase for that insurance.
I don't know what it's like in other European countries, but I have to enter my PIN code before a transaction can take place (except for very small transactions). So since overcharging or webshops charging my account cannot really happen without my explicit permission, I don't really see how that could happen?
On the other hand, a credit card will give you back 1-2% of that in the form of cash back or other rewards. So in effect you are paying to not use a credit card.
Either system is a valid solution to the problem of fraudulent charges, both have their advantages and disadvantages.
The PIN requirement for usage must be a European thing.
It is. Over here a credit and a debit card work in significantly different ways. In the USA (and probably other countries too) a debit card is just a credit card that's more likely to get declined and gets billed slightly differently. Over here they are entirely different transaction systems as far as I can tell.
US Cash/Debit/Credit: 30%/35%/30%
EU Cash/Debit/Credit: 38%/30%/26%
(If it's 'type of payment method' owned: possible. But if it's volume of currency exchanging hands then it //really// mismatches with my experiences in US vs Northern EU)