Credit card safer than a debit card?

bobblebob

Having just been a victim of debit card fraud, i was thinking about maybe getting a credit card purely for online transactions. Wont do my credit rating any harm too, so could be a good thing all round

Do you get better protection from a credit card if any money is taken out fradulently? I know you get the money back with a debit card, but seems its a longer process to get it back. With a credit card at least i can keep all my other accounts off the net

Any thoughts?

latecomer

Credit cards cover you for purchases over £100 but not necessarily purchases through Paypal or another intermediary.

I do all my spending on credit cards and then pay them off in full each month. Crdit cards are great as long as you are disiplined with regards to your spending. But if you are inclined to spend money you dont have then have a serious think before applying for one.

bobblebob

Im not someone who spends what i dont have. Most of my transactions are probably less than £100 tho

withabix

Most bank account debit cards offer exactly the same fraud protection as a credit card.

The reference here to £100 is a confusion between the protection required by Section 75 of the CCA and what the OP is actually asking about.

If you've suffered online fraud, your bank will normally protect you, unless you've done something stupid, like entering your details including PIN etc on a website, or writing your PIN down or something similar.

£100 is nothing to do with it. If you suffered online fraud of 1p, technically you should be able to get it back from your bank if they offer such protection.

Result from a credit card company would be just the same. No more protection and no less.


What was the fraud, how was it done and how much did you lose? Has your bank refunded you and which bank?

bobblebob

What was the fraud, how was it done and how much did you lose? Has your bank refunded you and which bank?

Lost £400. No idea how they got my details as im very careful online. Wasnt aware of anything until Halifax rang me saying they want to discuss a transaction on my account. Turns out 4 £100 payments were taken (a £200 payment was rejected, and i assume this is what alerted the bank). It was from some online betting site i never heard of.

They havent refunded me yet, im about to ring as its been 6 days now

bobblebob

Just rung the bank. A form is on its way out to me that i have to indicate what transactions were fraud and sign to say my details are correct

withabix

You should get all of this back.

You might not have done anything wrong. Some crook at a petrol station probably modified the card reader to copy the card details and log your pin number.

bobblebob

In my case, how would the bank prove it wasnt me just wanting to place a bet on this site?

CopperPlate_2

I had exactly the same thing done with my Egg card a few months ago. Egg were very good and dealt with it, refunding me within a couple of days. It was a betting site and the only thing I could think of was that I'd used a legitimate site to buy parts for my car a week or so earlier - the ba****ds even had my mobile phone number logged on the betting site (who actually phoned me up a couple of weeks later to welcome me and congratulate me on winning £36 from a bet the sods made using MY CARD!!). The car part site was the only place that I'd entered my mobile on that month (suppose it could've been much earlier than that.) It was a legit site - really worrying like the OP has said that it can happen and you're in the dark with where it could be from. The person who regd on the betting site didn't have access to my date of birth or correct email address so when the person from the betting site took me through 'security' I was able to tell them it really WASN'T ME.

Egg took it all on trust on the surface, although they probably made some enquiries with the site.

bobblebob

I dont know how they do it with a betting site. I use Willhill and for security you can only claim winnings back on the card you deposited money with. So somehow they deposit money into the betting site, change card and then take it out again

The site in my case was fastengine if anyone knows more about them? Apparently based in Cyprus but no £1.50 exchange charges appeared on my statement like normal when using card from another country, so must have been from the UK