In the US, an account + routing number pair is basically the keys to the kingdom. Yes, it is kind of scary.

It's somewhat the opposite in the US. With your bank routing and account number someone can make out bad checks or EFT pull from your account. Halting or reversing this can be quite difficult and in some cases it isn't possible to get your money back.

With credit cards the liability is on the merchant that accepts the card to verify that the person presenting the card is authorized to use it. Card issuers will reverse charges and leave the merchant out the money in the event of fraud.

But I mean, in the context of accepting payments online, debit cards aren't really an alternative to credit cards, are they? The two go hand-in-hand. Merchants that accept credit generally accept debit, so you're fine in that situation if you prefer debit.

A small niggle, because I see a lot of people say this: At least in the US, many banks do extend the same protections to both credit and debit cards. My wife and I both had our debit card info stolen in separate hacks over the past few years, and both times our respective banks just asked us a few questions, credited the money back to our accounts and sent a new card that automatically replaced the old card upon activation.

Credit cards can cost more for merchants to process, sometimes they pass this cost onto the consumer with a credit card surcharge.

It's also easier to track your spending on a debit card as you can check the remaining balance at any ATM rather than waiting for the bill or going online.