Credit cards have much better fraud protection then debit
Comment on The ultimate life hack the government doesn't want you to know
hulemy@ani.social 8 months ago
Americans getting credit cards so young is so foreign to me. Here you only get a credit card either for business reasons or if you travel internationally where the European standards for debit cards don’t apply
mojo@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Annually2747@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The fraud prevention page for my mastercard debit card is the same page as the credit card page.
However, what I really recommend is you can get travel cards that you load with minimal money and are entirely disposable. You don’t need to only use them overseas. I have used them for online payments and in person payments and they’re disposable. That is I can get two more unique cards with unique numbers at any time. Minimising my personal risk since they can’t be used as ID and I limit the money on the card to just what’s needed. If it’s stolen skimmed or tried to be used fraudulently I might at most lose 50 dollars but I also probably know who within a margin of error skimmed it since I rotate them with new cards every so often.
I’m also in a place where losing 50 Australian dollars won’t financially bankrupt me if it was stolen. Because I’m pretty sure there is lots less fraud protection on those travel cards.
Anyway there’s alternatives for those who can’t or morally object to credit cards. Like me. Mine is I’m bad with money, I morally don’t trust myself since I went into 10k debt at 18.
mojo@lemm.ee 8 months ago
If there’s fraud on a credit card, the bank fights to get their money back. If it’s fraud on a debit card, you fight for your money.
Annually2747@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What I was just advocating for, is taking ownership and control of the risk. If it’s your own entire bank account perhaps with a few thousand dollars, that risk is thousands of dollars. By segmenting that you can reduce it to dozens of dollars in which case, no matter the coin flip of bank fraud and money return, you’re never putting your eggs all in one basket.
Risk management is more than good insurance.
Aux@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That’s kind of irrelevant when you have modern tech like mobile payments to safeguard you. But yeah, if you’re still using magnetic stripes, you’re kinda fucked.
mojo@lemm.ee 8 months ago
That’s not how fraud protection works lol
Aux@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, tell me more about it, lol.
dingus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I got a credit card as a teen and have always just treated it like cash. Zero issues doing that and it helped build up my credit score by giving me such a long credit history with good payments.
hulemy@ani.social 8 months ago
As an European credit scores sound so weird to me 😮
skyspydude1@lemmy.world 8 months ago
They’re basically a black box and can do some really weird shit (I had mine drop by 80 points, which is a lot, all because I paid off my student loans), but their purpose and basic workings are pretty straightforward. You show that you can be trusted when you’re given a loan and can pay it back? Score go up. Do things that make the bank question if you can pay them back? Score go down.
Now, there’s a shitton of complexity to it I won’t go into, but it’s not always as bad as people make it out to be and really only matters when you’re trying to get a loan and sometimes when you’re renting somewhere.
hulemy@ani.social 8 months ago
That I understand, but adding your kids on your credit card so their score goes up and things like having debt just to pay it back is weird to me
dingus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Fair enough. I have a question though so apologies for my ignorance.
But how do lenders in your area determine if someone is a good borrower or an unreliable borrower without something like a credit score. I’m not saying the way the US does it is the best answer or anything. I just legitimately don’t know how it works elsewhere.
hulemy@ani.social 8 months ago
Pretty sure we have some sort of database or Registry for people who don’t pay back their loans. And loans do show up when for example mortgage people do a background check on you
Aux@lemmy.world 8 months ago
In most European countries you’re innocent unless proven guilty. That means that instead of a credit score, which is 0 by default and you have to prove to everyone that you’re a good boy, we can take any loans straight away. But if a person defaults, then they get a mark in their financial profile and other lenders will be wary.
creditCrazy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Probably the best advice I’ve gotten was “it may be a loan and someone else’s money but you best treat it as your own money because it will eventually be your money and you have to pay for everything”
dangblingus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What does “treated it like cash” mean?
dingus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I treat it like a debit card. I don’t put more on the credit card than I have in my bank account. And I don’t keep a running balance each month. I pay off the card bill each month so I don’t pay credit card fees.
Also, I know you didn’t ask this… But I also tend to use my credit card instead of my debit card because I get cash back rewards points for using it (unlike with a debit card). And I’m the US (not sure about other countries), it tends to be much easier to dispute a fraudulent charge to your credit card than your debit card. Because when something is debited from your bank account, it’s almost immediately gone. But when you get a charge to your credit card, it’s kind of like a mini loan, so money is not immediately deducted from your bank account.
basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Here in Germany you can get back money that somebody took via direct debit, but not if you transfer it yourself. And many supermarkets use direct debit at their own risk after some automated risk analysis, because it has lower fees than girocard/maestro/vpay. (They extract the bank code from the card and print a form for direct debit authorization with the receipt printer)
mojo@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Not letting the balance be higher then your checking. Auto pay off your statement in full every month.
Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Reasons to get a credit card in 2019 -
To hire a car
Reasons to get a credit card in 2023 -
?
Totally alien concept to me
dangblingus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You put normal monthly expenses on the credit card, then you immediately pay it off. Do this for a while and build your credit score. Use your higher credit score to get approved for loans/mortgages/bigger credit.
All credit is is a way to buy something expensive that you can’t afford right now. Figure out what you want to buy, then build the necessary credit to be approved for the big purchase.
pazzeda@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
Heh, no credit agencies in my country, no credit score.
Stumblinbear@pawb.social 8 months ago
Not having a credit card is giving up free money in cash back and rewards
Destraight@lemm.ee 8 months ago
[deleted]Aux@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Of course you can if it is a cash back.
Stumblinbear@pawb.social 8 months ago
I literally can withdrawal it
dangblingus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You can withdraw it. It’s called a cash advance. It’s cash that immediately accrues interest on your credit card balance.
iFarmGolems@lemmy.world 8 months ago
When you pay with credit card it’s bank’s money. When paying with debit it’s yours.
I pay everything on the internet with credit card. It’s safer.
Fogle@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I use mine for cash back. I’ve been watching this finance channel on YouTube and the amount of Americans with thousands and thousands of credit card debt at sometimes over 30% interest is fucking insane.
Aux@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Juicy cashbacks with AmEx.
mayonaise_met@feddit.nl 8 months ago
Maertro crowd isn’t so lucky. And rental companies don’t advertise this.
GloveNinja@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I was advised by my family and the ban when I was 16 to get a Credit Card so I could build my credit score. I didn’t really have any good financial awareness and they set me at a $2000 limit. Needless to say that was maxed almost immediately and took years of developing discipline to get under control. I still struggle with CCs now and then… They’re too easy to come by and too hard to break free of
hulemy@ani.social 8 months ago
Where I’m from almost no one under 25 gets a credit card, because most non-online/prepaid/crypto credit cards have an age or income limit.
Everyone over the age of 12 has a debit card here. I think it promotes healthy spending knowing you have a set limit and immediately see the amount of money change. Overdrafts are also not enabled by default and require an extra package.
Venmo/Cashapp etc are also uncommon here.
hulemy@ani.social 8 months ago
Oh yeah, you do need a credit card for some hotels here. So that’s a reason I guess?
basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
There are enough that accept upfront payments in cash when you check in.