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In Switzerland, almost everybody uses debit cards, and you can't use debit cards (Maestro) online. You use credit cards for online payments, but that's about it

In Switzerland, almost everybody uses debit cards, and you can't use debit cards (Maestro) online. You use credit cards for online payments, but that's about it. With debit cards, you have to enter a 6-number pin to withdraw cash or pay with them. I have a hard time seeing how debit cards are worse than credit cards. There is skimming, but banks reverse fraudulent withdrawals. The protection is the same as with credit cards. There is an upper monthly limit on your payments / withdrawals with debit cards. You can even lower that limit if you want to. You can overdraw your account within a certain boundary and with this your debit card is also a poor man's credit card.

roc 14y ago
> "I have a hard time seeing how debit cards are worse than credit cards." In the US, debit cards are generally also credit cards. They can be processed exactly like a credit card, without a pin number, without a second glance at the signature usually, and the money comes out of the associated checking account. So instead of a fraudulent charge just being a line item on a statement until your card issuer can prove that it isn't fraudulent - it represents actual missing money from your checking account, until you can convince the bank that the charges are fraudulent I had a debit card compromised in one of the regional card processer hackings and had $1500 [1] of my money tied up until the bank reversed the charges and gave it back. They took 12 business days. That was not cool. [1] Three $500 purchases of flowers, 10 states away from where I live, each 1 hour apart. How does that not look suspicious? I get a phone call from the same bank almost every time I travel after the first time I use my credit card for a nontrivial purchase. They sanity-check that I really am halfway across the country. That is awesome. That also represents their money being protected from fraud. Apparently, when it comes to protecting my money from fraud, they're not so motivated.

roc 14y ago

> "I have a hard time seeing how debit cards are worse than credit cards." In the US, debit cards are generally also credit cards. They can be processed exactly like a credit card, without a pin number, without a second glance at the signature usually, and the money comes out of the associated checking account. So instead of a fraudulent charge just being a line item on a statement until your card issuer can prove that it isn't fraudulent - it represents actual missing money from your checking account, until you can convince the bank that the charges are fraudulent I had a debit card compromised in one of the regional card processer hackings and had $1500 [1] of my money tied up until the bank reversed the charges and gave it back. They took 12 business days. That was not cool. [1] Three $500 purchases of flowers, 10 states away from where I live, each 1 hour apart. How does that not look suspicious? I get a phone call from the same bank almost every time I travel after the first time I use my credit card for a nontrivial purchase. They sanity-check that I really am halfway across the country. That is awesome. That also represents their money being protected from fraud. Apparently, when it comes to protecting my money from fraud, they're not so motivated.