Also, if you did happen to miss payment because you forgot, 1 mos. of interest really isn't very much and certainly isn't the end of the world. The problem with CCs is when people don't pay them off and continue to put more and more charges on them. That's when things really add up.
Finally, that extra layer of separation between my money and the merchant/card thief is a good thing. CC gets stolen and I never lose possession of my money. Debit card gets stolen, and no matter how fast they reverse the charges, there's still a point where I lost possession.
With a debit card you might just lose the money.
In Europe credit-card usage is much lower, and card security is much higher for both types of cards. We've had chip and pin protected cards for many many years, while the US only caught on in the last few years.
Is there objective data that US debit cards have more fraud impact for their users? Or is this really more a PR story from credit card companies?
Depends how tightly someones runs their bank account. A fraudulent charge could come at a bad time and trigger your mortgage payment to fail because of insufficient funds. Though, most bank accounts offer overdraft protection, which is really just an available loan that is automatically taken.
For me, very few charges come directly out of my bank account. Everything else goes through a CC so I can review prior to paying each month.
That’s crazy if you think about it - you give your card around to many people and any of them can write it down and use it.
In the US the only sensible thing to do is to use your credit card for everything and keep your savings tucked in an account which doesn’t have a card at all, nor a checking account tied to it. Then maybe a small checking account at some other bank for rare times you need cash.
Debit card fraud is rampant here in the USA. I cannot think of anyone I know personally who has not been a victim of debit and credit card fraud at least once (most have been hit multiple times). The difference usually is that in the case of credit card fraud, you go to charge something, and your card doesn't work. You call up only to find out your credit card has been frozen due to a pattern of suspicious purchasing behavior in some distant state. Credit card companies are very diligent about this because it is their money on the line. When it comes to debit card fraud you only find out about it when you check your account and see your balance decimated or a list of phony charges that you didn't authorize. In the case of credit cards, you aren't responsible for paying the phony charges. In the case of debit cards, you are usually just out the money. It is very common here.
Building up a strong FICO score is the easiest thing with the exact mindset of OP with effectively the same amount of friction thanks to the "miracle" of autopay.
I just contact my bank and they refund it within a few days and issue me a new card.
No problems.
Do you ever run into transactions that can't be completed with alternate payment methods? For example, I used to see hotels state that they only accept credit cards (and explicitly exclude debit cards) for checking into a room.