4 ms·

Can someone tell me how carrying a credit/debit card is safer than carrying cash? Thanks.

by snarfy 12y ago

objclxt 12y ago
Hard to tell if you're being facetious, but just in case... 1. If your cash gets stolen, it's goodbye cash. If your credit card gets stolen / cloned in the vast majority of cases you're not going to be liable for any of the charges. 2. The more cash you carry, the higher the risk to you, whereas a credit card has a relatively flat risk profile.
- snarfy 12y ago
  My cash has never been stolen. I have never been mugged. I've had my card cancelled multiple times though due to fraud and now have credit monitoring. My card is far more likely to be skimmed or be stolen/copied in a massive database like Target than for my cash to be stolen. If credit cards are used for risk mitigation, they are failing for the vast majority of transactions. A $10K transaction? Sure. But for a $3 coffee? It's not worth the risk.
  - adamlett 12y ago
    > My cash has never been stolen. I have never been mugged. And I've never been in a car accident. That must mean there is no reason for me to wear a seat belt!
  - pessimizer 12y ago
    >My cash has never been stolen. I have never been mugged. If you can figure out how to make this scalable to everyone, there will be no advantage to carrying plastic. I have my doubts that this is possible. >My card is far more likely to be skimmed or be stolen/copied in a massive database like Target than for my cash to be stolen. Mine was, at Target, my account was drained of about $2K, and it cost me about six phone calls over two days. The only lingering effect was an example of how trivial an experience with false charges on your debit is, which comes in handy during my rants about how many politicians, news outlets, and credit card marketers scream about card number theft in order to grab eyeballs and push agendas. I'm not a big advocate of slutting your card around, but that's because I don't feel like broadcasting every single minor purchase I make throughout the day, and because it's slower and more annoying (to you and everyone around you) than having your cash ready before you get to the register. I'm embarrassed if by some lapse of routine I get to the checkout and have to use a card for a $10 purchase, and the first thing I do is apologize.
  - logfromblammo 12y ago
    I haven't ever been mugged, either. But that guy will probably only clean me out once in our lifetimes. My spouse has taken more cash from me than I care to admit. Be warned, single folks. You won't just lose cash to faceless thieves in dark alleyways. It will disappear into birthday cards, pizza deliverator tips, bribes to children, and other countless, petty, unnecessary, and off-budget expenses. That is where the card advantage comes in. It has your name on it, and you will more easily notice if someone uses it without your consent. It's hardly worth worrying about strangers stealing your money when everyone in your family has a thumb in your wallet 24 hours a day. The additional friction in the transaction process for cards is actually an advantage there. If they made a payments processing system that somehow involved the buyer carrying around a 10kg block of stone everywhere, I'd sign up for that in an instant. I don't care if it makes it more inconvenient for me to spend money, just so long as it is much worse for everyone else.
aianus 12y ago
So I can simultaneously be able buy something that costs $10k but I can't get mugged and lose it all?
- hga 12y ago
  $10K is an unreasonable amount of money to cite here. Heck, how many of us even have credit limits that high? Check or wire transfer is what I've used for such sums in times past. Also, I don't know where you live, but in most of the US (by state and population), we're allowed to carry concealed handguns after jumping through some moderate hoops, and in the places I've lived like this, Virginia and Missouri, muggings are also not-coincidentally much less frequent (that was particularly clear when I lived in Northern Virginia with D.C. and Maryland a subway trip away). I routinely carry ~$450 and a .45, more if needed, and just don't worry about credit card compromise aside from uses on the net. ATM compromise is another story, of course; the one I use with a bank account with "a lot" of money is in a Wal-Mart open 24x7 that's part of a bank branch open during normal business hours, there are so many easier targets I'd be really surprised if it got hacked. The other one I use never has more than $1,000 in the account. For that matter, I don't let the first one get much above $2,500 before transferring money out of it.
  - Nursie 12y ago
    >> $10K is an unreasonable amount of money to cite here. Heck, how many of us even have credit limits that high? I've bought cars using plastic before. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to do this. Frankly I'd rather deal with the odd bit of CC fraud than carry a gun, but then I'm British.
    - hga 12y ago
      The gun, I should note, is to protect my life; the mugging/robbery angle only comes in because by definition it requires a credible threat of violence, the mugger isn't going to know how much money I'm carrying.

Can someone tell me how carrying a credit/debit card is safer than carrying cash? Thanks.

by snarfy 12y ago

Can someone tell me how carrying a credit/debit card is safer than carrying cash? Thanks.

Hard to tell if you're being facetious, but just in case... 1. If your cash gets stolen, it's goodbye cash. If your credit card gets stolen / cloned in the vast majority of cases you're not going to be liable for any of the charges. 2. The more cash you carry, the higher the risk to you, whereas a credit card has a relatively flat risk profile.

snarfy 12y ago
My cash has never been stolen. I have never been mugged. I've had my card cancelled multiple times though due to fraud and now have credit monitoring. My card is far more likely to be skimmed or be stolen/copied in a massive database like Target than for my cash to be stolen. If credit cards are used for risk mitigation, they are failing for the vast majority of transactions. A $10K transaction? Sure. But for a $3 coffee? It's not worth the risk.
- adamlett 12y ago
  > My cash has never been stolen. I have never been mugged. And I've never been in a car accident. That must mean there is no reason for me to wear a seat belt!
- pessimizer 12y ago
  >My cash has never been stolen. I have never been mugged. If you can figure out how to make this scalable to everyone, there will be no advantage to carrying plastic. I have my doubts that this is possible. >My card is far more likely to be skimmed or be stolen/copied in a massive database like Target than for my cash to be stolen. Mine was, at Target, my account was drained of about $2K, and it cost me about six phone calls over two days. The only lingering effect was an example of how trivial an experience with false charges on your debit is, which comes in handy during my rants about how many politicians, news outlets, and credit card marketers scream about card number theft in order to grab eyeballs and push agendas. I'm not a big advocate of slutting your card around, but that's because I don't feel like broadcasting every single minor purchase I make throughout the day, and because it's slower and more annoying (to you and everyone around you) than having your cash ready before you get to the register. I'm embarrassed if by some lapse of routine I get to the checkout and have to use a card for a $10 purchase, and the first thing I do is apologize.
- logfromblammo 12y ago
  I haven't ever been mugged, either. But that guy will probably only clean me out once in our lifetimes. My spouse has taken more cash from me than I care to admit. Be warned, single folks. You won't just lose cash to faceless thieves in dark alleyways. It will disappear into birthday cards, pizza deliverator tips, bribes to children, and other countless, petty, unnecessary, and off-budget expenses. That is where the card advantage comes in. It has your name on it, and you will more easily notice if someone uses it without your consent. It's hardly worth worrying about strangers stealing your money when everyone in your family has a thumb in your wallet 24 hours a day. The additional friction in the transaction process for cards is actually an advantage there. If they made a payments processing system that somehow involved the buyer carrying around a 10kg block of stone everywhere, I'd sign up for that in an instant. I don't care if it makes it more inconvenient for me to spend money, just so long as it is much worse for everyone else.

aianus 12y ago

So I can simultaneously be able buy something that costs $10k but I can't get mugged and lose it all?

hga 12y ago
$10K is an unreasonable amount of money to cite here. Heck, how many of us even have credit limits that high? Check or wire transfer is what I've used for such sums in times past. Also, I don't know where you live, but in most of the US (by state and population), we're allowed to carry concealed handguns after jumping through some moderate hoops, and in the places I've lived like this, Virginia and Missouri, muggings are also not-coincidentally much less frequent (that was particularly clear when I lived in Northern Virginia with D.C. and Maryland a subway trip away). I routinely carry ~$450 and a .45, more if needed, and just don't worry about credit card compromise aside from uses on the net. ATM compromise is another story, of course; the one I use with a bank account with "a lot" of money is in a Wal-Mart open 24x7 that's part of a bank branch open during normal business hours, there are so many easier targets I'd be really surprised if it got hacked. The other one I use never has more than $1,000 in the account. For that matter, I don't let the first one get much above $2,500 before transferring money out of it.
- Nursie 12y ago
  >> $10K is an unreasonable amount of money to cite here. Heck, how many of us even have credit limits that high? I've bought cars using plastic before. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to do this. Frankly I'd rather deal with the odd bit of CC fraud than carry a gun, but then I'm British.
  - hga 12y ago
    The gun, I should note, is to protect my life; the mugging/robbery angle only comes in because by definition it requires a credible threat of violence, the mugger isn't going to know how much money I'm carrying.