I always use a credit card, just for the fraud protection...no idea how, but my CC has been used fraudulently 3 times over the years, and each time, with a quick phone call, the charge is gone, basically no questions asked (they assume fraud and go from there)...contrast that with a debit card where the money is actually being taken out of your account.

My wife recently used her debit card at a restaurant and they accidentally double-charged her. The restaurant recognized their mistake, but were being pains getting us refunded, requiring bank statements and such, so instead I called the bank (Wells Fargo), and it was 2 weeks before they said "Sorry, nothing we can do, take it up with the restaurant." We ended up getting the money back, but it was a real pain.

Three reasons for me:

1) Establish and grow credit rating 2) An extra layer of defense against bad merchants (the CC companies will be your goon squad) 3) Bonus miles/points/etc