How secure are debit cards?

Answer

It's been my experience that the majority of banks work very hard to make depositers accounts as secure as possible. I feel safer using my debit card than I would using a traditional credit card.

Answer

I disagree with Nikki's answer that the security of a debit card has anything to with the banks good intentions toward its depositors. US law (I am _not_ a lawyer or an expert) provides protections for owners of credit cards that debit card owners do not enjoy.

There are some protections which would prevent your account from being cleaned out by a thief. But depending on the laws of your state and the voluntary policies of your bank, you could be out up to $500 or even the full amount stolen under some circumstances. The law limits your liability for a stolen credit card to $50.

Some banks do voluntarily provide protection terms more comparable to those of credit cards, so it pays to ask for details.

Even with protection a big difference between credit and debit card fraud is in what happens to you while the issue of the fraud is being resolved.

If you discover that your credit card has been maxed out, you can't use it to buy new things until the problem is cleared up, but you also don't have to pay the charges that the thief made while they are in dispute.

With a debit card, you may have to deal with having no money in your account as checks that you have written bounce, leaving you owing the people you wrote checks to and with no money to pay them until you prove fraud and get your money back.

Here is a link to a consumer organization article about debit cards that goes into more detail than I can here:

PIRG Consumer Protection pages: http://www.pirg.org/consumer/banks/debit/fact.htm

Here is a scary story of one person's problems with a debit card at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse web site:

http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/DebitCd1002.htm

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