I had a debit card saved on Aliexpress. The account was compromised by unknown means (maybe public wifi). Someone bought several $1,000+ phones from China that shipped to me in the US. I presume the sellers were in on it and were selling me unwanted inventory at inflated prices. Because they had tracking information, my bank (HSBC) said their hands were tied and I lost several thousand dollars overnight. It didn't matter that it was obviously fraud -- I provided customer service emails, logs showing the purchases all happened at 4am local time, and all at the exact same timestamp.
Moral of the story: don't use debit cards, don't save your cards online (save them in your browser and unselect "save this card"), don’t expect your bank to have effective fraud detection, and don't trust Aliexpress to have your back.
Also, please don't bank with HSBC. They are the worst of the worst. You'd be better off with Wells, that's how bad HSBC is. https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/hsbc-moved-...
The same provider also give 25 IBANs per account. I could, for free, put 25 virtual debit cards on them, and have the IBANs empty unless I put money on it. Good luck scamming me this way. After all, the accounts are empty except for a few min when I put money on them to spend it.
So you find my card in the wild, good luck.
Most of the time that's an anti-feature - there is no point of hiding transactions of you buying bread, it could provide you an alibi in case you are accused of a crime, but there is no conceivable way it could be used against you.. (people don't stop to buy bread on the way to the crime scene)
Not being able to indebt yourself is THE major advantage of debit card. Not everybody in this world is reasonable when it is about spending and finance management.
In some European countries with a more conservative mindset related to debts (Germany, France, ...), people will tend to have the exact opposite stance :
"Why would I ever need a credit card ? It is dangerous. My debit card is accepted everywhere"
Suppose you charge $1000 each month at the rate of about $33 per day, and also pay it off when the bill is due.
In a year, you've gotten 1.5% of $12,000 back which is $180, but you could also look at it as though they are paying you 36% per year to use (on average) $500 of their money.
The latter interpretation makes it seem irresistible to me.
I use a debit card for groceries and such. However, just to be sure, my paycheck goes to an account with no cards attached. I then transfer small amounts ($100 or so) every now and then to the debit card account.
This limits my exposure to card fraud, and also has the nice side benefit of giving me back some of that "spending feeling" that cash has. If I have to transfer say three days in a row it's noticeable and I can think about what I've spent it on, and maybe slow down a bit if I know I'm running low.
Sure was an awkward call with the USAA security department after they worked out the exact timeline and actions of the attack. They didn't really have much to say in their own defense. Cost them about five grand in the end. The really annoying part is that now if my wife needs to call them for anything on the phone they make her jump through many hoops to identify herself. E.g. she has to answer the credit bureau-based questions every time, plus a PIN, plus a phone password. We may move banks just so we're not stuck with an online-only relationship because of this experience.
Paycheck to cards not attached does not matter, ACH transfers can still be done much easier vs a EMV/Stripe read of a debit card.
So all you are doing is amplifying your risk without any reward.
Only using it on gas & groceries, will average 16 points per dollar (approx 12-16%) when we reach $15,000 spent total.
The new deal is similarly structured but horrible in comparison, “shop small” is the category so it’s not realistic to max out the bonus spend without overspending.
There are some edge cases where one might overdraft more (delayed transactions IIRC), but again no fees.
But a lawsuit might untie them. That said fraud can sometimes be too hard to prove.
I'd paid with a credit card, so I asked my card provider to do either a chargeback or section 75 (I forget which) to force a refund, and the money was back in my account within a couple of weeks.
Any other cards anybody can recommend?
Sort of.
Do they still require using Chrome for that feature?
Fuck Google, I'm not about to use them for that!
