3 ms·

it's not like debit cards are extremely safe to begin with. banks (in the US, at least) will happily let you withdraw $XXX more than you actually have and charg

it's not like debit cards are extremely safe to begin with. banks (in the US, at least) will happily let you withdraw $XXX more than you actually have and charge you a fee on top of it. do you routinely overdraw your bank account? if not, you probably a) keep more than enough in checking to cover a typical month's expenses, or b) carefully track your balance to ensure each purchase won't take you past zero. unless having a credit card in your hand gives you an uncontrollable urge to spend more money than you have, I don't really see how this is any less trouble than a debit card. if you're not living paycheck to paycheck, just put the card on autopay and keep 2X your monthly expenses in checking. if you don't have a lot of surplus income, you need to be careful, but it's no different with debit.

tacocataco 5y ago
Some banks let you disable overdraft protection. Your card will just be declined when there isn't enough to cover the balance.
- dguest 5y ago
  I thought courts had required banks to allow opt-out for a long time. Apparently more recently [1] this was expanded so that account holders have to opt in. [1]: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/overdraft-protection-expi_n_682825 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/overdraft-protection-expi_n_6...
dguest 5y ago
I've never owned a credit card. Can you have them automatically pay off the balance every month? It seems like this would cut into their profits. I think the point above was more or less: - With a debit card if you have 10k in the bank and spend 100 dollars a month, you don't need to do anything extra. - With a credit card, you need to remember to pay off your balance.
- leetcrew 5y ago
  > I've never owned a credit card. Can you have them automatically pay off the balance every month? It seems like this would cut into their profits. it's worth noting that issuers generally make money on credit cards. this is in contrast to checking accounts, which are often a loss leader. the card issuer will happily let you screw yourself over (to a point, this is what the credit limit is for), but they won't go out of their way to directly screw you. there's far less incentive to do overtly malicious things like debit reordering (pretty common for checking accounts). [0] so yes, all major issuers offer autopay. there is a subtlety here in that they don't usually let you autopay your current balance in its entirety. instead, they'll let you autopay the last statement balance at most, which is enough to avoid accruing any interest. tl;dr: if you keep a decent buffer in your checking account and set up autopay, a credit card is no more trouble than a debit card (and actually less trouble, in some ways). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdraft#Transaction_processing_order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdraft#Transaction_processi...

tacocataco 5y ago

Some banks let you disable overdraft protection. Your card will just be declined when there isn't enough to cover the balance.

dguest 5y ago
I thought courts had required banks to allow opt-out for a long time. Apparently more recently [1] this was expanded so that account holders have to opt in. [1]: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/overdraft-protection-expi_n_682825 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/overdraft-protection-expi_n_6...

dguest 5y ago

I've never owned a credit card. Can you have them automatically pay off the balance every month? It seems like this would cut into their profits. I think the point above was more or less: - With a debit card if you have 10k in the bank and spend 100 dollars a month, you don't need to do anything extra. - With a credit card, you need to remember to pay off your balance.

leetcrew 5y ago
> I've never owned a credit card. Can you have them automatically pay off the balance every month? It seems like this would cut into their profits. it's worth noting that issuers generally make money on credit cards. this is in contrast to checking accounts, which are often a loss leader. the card issuer will happily let you screw yourself over (to a point, this is what the credit limit is for), but they won't go out of their way to directly screw you. there's far less incentive to do overtly malicious things like debit reordering (pretty common for checking accounts). [0] so yes, all major issuers offer autopay. there is a subtlety here in that they don't usually let you autopay your current balance in its entirety. instead, they'll let you autopay the last statement balance at most, which is enough to avoid accruing any interest. tl;dr: if you keep a decent buffer in your checking account and set up autopay, a credit card is no more trouble than a debit card (and actually less trouble, in some ways). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdraft#Transaction_processing_order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdraft#Transaction_processi...