Not that it buys you much; there's plenty of small / specialty merchants who might offer you a discount for paying with cash or check, but they treat credit and debit the same.
There is indeed usually not much difference in how banks handle the fraud on credit cards and debit cards.
But it is vital to understand that with credit cards, you are off the hook on fraud due to regulations (in the USA, don't know other countries laws). With debit cards, you're probably off the hook on fraud only because the bank wants to be nice in the name of customer service (usually and only up to a point).
So with debit card fraud the bank might decide they don't really want to keep you as a customer and things become your problem. With a credit card it'll never be your problem because the regulations make it so.
If your issuer contractually offers zero liability for debit fraud, that is just as binding as regulations – and most do.
And if they don't, from a regulatory point of view, the liability for debit cards is limited to $500 when reported within 60 days of receiving your statement, compared to $50 for credit cards: Certainly a difference, but definitely not as drastic as "you're always on the hook" vs. "never your problem" as it is often characterized.
> So with debit card fraud the bank might decide they don't really want to keep you as a customer and things become your problem. With a credit card it'll never be your problem because the regulations make it so.
The regulations say nothing about the issuer having to keep you as a customer going forward. I highly doubt that, given reoccurring fraud cases even after a couple of card/number replacements, credit card issuers would be keeping you as a customer any more than debit issuers.
Every bank card or account I've ever had regularly send out notices saying they have changed their terms of service and your continued use of the account indicates your agreement to the new terms.
In other words they can change those any time they want unilaterally and you probably won't even notice (because who reads those terms of service?)
You may also want to read all the fine print to see if they carve themselves any exceptions.
The great benefit of the protections under credit card regulations is not having to worry about any such shenanigans. The bank can't change the regulation so you know you're always protected, full stop.
Also remember that fraud on a debit card hits your account balance immediately, even if you can later argue to have it credited. Fraud on a credit card simply hits the credit card and can't touch your real money. Think of a credit card as cloudflare layer for your bank account agains fraud DoS.
I'm always very puzzled as why in the US one would ever use a debit card (I say US because I'm not familiar with regulations in other countries). A credit card offers stronger protections, stronger account isolation and cash back rewards.
It can touch your real credit score (if not resolved in your favor), which directly correlates with your ability to continue using credit cards.
And either way, you lose liquidity until the provisional credit (which is very soon in both scenarios, also required by law!), although admittedly money in a checking account is slightly more liquid since you can pay rent and cash-only expenses with it without incurring interest changes.
> I'm always very puzzled as why in the US one would ever use a debit card
Many people don't have credit, don't feel comfortable with the possibility of having to pay absurd interest rates in case they can't make a payment, or a combination thereof.
The topic of this thread is real fraud (as opposed to someone claiming fraud on a charge they actually made). So, it will always be resolved in your favor, that's my point here. Regulations on credit cards mean it will always be resolved in your favor (assuming actual fraud). So, no, it won't impact your credit score.
That's a load-bearing assumption here!
Yes, whenever a credit card fraud investigation will be resolved in your favor, so would it be for a debit card – and the outcome is "no money lost" in both scenarios as well.
But in the odd case a credit card issuer does not side with you, are you absolutely sure that they would just silently drop the pending balance and not report you for a missed payment if you decide to not pay? (Yes, there is recourse against that – but so is there against a Regulation E debit card fraud case, at least as far as I know.)
No, you're assuming the bank is obligated to refund you everything. As I mentioned at the top, this is always the case for credit cards but not necessarily always the case for debit cards.
As this is becoming circular, I don't wish to continue. Enjoy your debit card and I hope you never experience fraud.