The basis of his post was that someone in a company had made a major mistake and overcharged their customers. This caused a huge wave of problems for some of them. I'm sorry but it doesn't matter if you have a credit card or a debit card, getting overcharged for anything is not a good thing. Well FCN says that this proves that credit cards are better because those who had credit cards on file it wasn't a big deal, the company refunded the money and they went on with their life. But those who had debit cards on file, some of them occurred overdraft funds and some had bounced checks. Another problem I had with the post was one of the comments that said it was harder to deal with this sort of mistake or bank fraud with a debit card versus a credit card.
I had two major problems with this reasoning:
1. I think the post was a bit biased from FCN perspective, he took for granted that everyone who has a credit card had the room on the card for such a charge as well as any other automatic (or non-automatic) charges to occur, and those who had debit cards didn't have the extra cash. Last time I check, once you maxed out a credit card...that's it no more free money. Granted the debit card you have a limit of overdraft fees you can occur (for some accounts) and it too will be freeze. In this aspect neither one wins out.
2. He says those who had a credit card got repaid and life went on...again looking at the note before...I'm sure not every one's life was that happy cherry. He also leaves out the fact that those who had debit cards got their money back as well. Again granted those who occurred fees and other problems have more to deal with, getting it all straighten out, but those who had the same problem with credit cards have to go through the same deal. So again neither one wins out.
As far as the comment about dealing with the mistake, their basis was that you wouldn't know about a identity theft occurrence until the end of the month for a debit card, when your statement arrived. But with a credit card, you would notice it sooner because the card would get denied...
Okay, umm...this gave me paused. First off, if you are waiting for a monthly statement to arrive to check your accounts, in this age of online banking, then something is quite literally wrong. Even if you don't have access to a computer with Internet, most places offer telebanking to check your accounts. And what if you are like FCN who had a decent balance, your card wouldn't have been denied and thus you still wouldn't have known until the statement arrived. Identity theft is such a major problem now a days, keeping a close eye on your accounts is just plain smart.
Dealing with identity theft through credit cards or debit cards is no real difference, especially with more and more banks offering identity theft protection programs, just like credit cards. (Side notes, both sides charge you for the protection so for those who don't have it...they are still S.O.L. be it they have credit cards or debit cards.) And it's not that easy, no matter what the t.v. says, to deal with identity theft. It's a long and tedious battle, depending on how much money you have.
Having a debit card doesn't make you more vulnerable to identity theft. If you don't practice safe spending and aren't aware of your money and the accounts, then you put your own self up for risk, it doesn't matter what you have in your wallet.
I know that a lot of people have their reason for choosing to carry and use a credit card, but there are just that many people who prefer debit cards. Like I said I think the argument is moot. For every supposed con there is for using debit cards, there's a con for a credit card. For this situation, FCN chalks this up for a win for credit cards, but there are way too many factors he didn't take into consideration. The situation was bad no matter how you look at it, but those who were able take the hit with out it being much of a hassle to fix had it easier, and that goes for credit card and debit card holders.
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