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Comment by vinhboy | Hacker News Reader

I don't know why people swipe debit cards. If that account get stolen, that's your hard cash that's going to be taken.

Imagine if someone steals your debit card number and you did not find out about it for a week. By then you could miss your next rent payment because you don't have available funds in your account.

At least with a credit card, you have a full statement period to clean things up.

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>> I don't know why people swipe debit cards

My guess is there's a significant chunk of the population who, like me, simply don't own any credit cards. A quick search puts it around 25-30% of the US population. People do it for various reasons (don't qualify, don't believe in using them, etc.).

Debit cards are a convenient tool for these people.

If you use your debit card as credit, you get the same protection as a Visa/Mastercard credit card. Merchants and POS systems will generally steer you toward using it as debit (i.e. with PIN) because it's cheaper for them. If you feel bad about increased costs for merchants, use cash.

[I realize the parent didn't indicate that they themselves were in the "no credit card" camp, just thought it might be helpful information for someone].

You may get the same protection, but the debit card protection comes after you've lost the money from your checking/savings account. After checks may have bounced.

In general, I try and make all of my purchases on one credit card, and only use my debit card for withdrawing cash at atm's. That way I only have to monitor one account for fraudulent activity. Where this breaks down, is a lot of the discount/cheaper gas stations will only accept cash or debit. Also, the magnetic stripe seems to wear down pretty fast on my cards, which means I often have to use my debit card when the credit card isn't swiping. I agree though, get a credit card (preferably with rewards, mine does 1% cash back) and use that for all of your purchases.

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