[wombat_trouble]

This is a popular take, but I found relatively little difference in how my bank handles CC and debit card fraud. In both cases, they credited the disputed amount to me right away.

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.

[jjav]

> This is a popular take, but I found relatively little difference in how my bank handles CC and debit card fraud. In both cases, they credited the disputed amount to me right away.

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.

[lxgr]

> with credit cards, you are off the hook on fraud due to regulations

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.

[_ktx2]

On my credit card I've reported fraud and been reimbursed immediately. On my debit card there's a lot more hassle. I can stop a transaction and I can report the fraud, but it takes a long time to resolve (usually weeks). They're two different systems entirely. For instance, I signed up for a single month of the LA Times as part of a charity drive. They continued billing me for over a year which is clearly fraud. The best I could do was stop the transaction that month and I'd have to contact them for reimbursement before my bank would step in. Basically, "try to do business with the fraudsters first, if they refuse we might help."