[AnthonyMouse]

> You can reverse the charges on debit cards, but the money is withdrawn at the time the charge is made. This is not the case for credit cards.

In a sense it is though, because it lowers your available credit by the amount of the charge. And the fraudsters are going to try to run you right up to your credit limit, so you end up at the same problem: You now have legitimate charges being declined because the fraudsters locked up your payment card.

[lxgr]

Having multiple credit cards in the US is quite common, since there's no practical downside (unlike having multiple checking accounts, which locks up liquidity at usually no interest payment) and it can even be beneficial for your credit score.

[AnthonyMouse]

That's not the problem. After all, if it happened to your debit card you could likewise make purchases on a different card, regardless of whether the other card is a debit or credit card.

It's also not that hard to get two debit cards. There are credit unions with no minimum balance requirement.

The actual problem is that if it happens to any card, all the stuff configured to use that card is now failing. You have a toll tag and the company goes to charge your card for a road toll, it's a perverse unaccountable bureaucracy that has captured the government so enjoy your $50 declined payment fee. You have autopay on for several services which will naturally suspend your account if you don't pay them. That's an inconvenience for something like Netflix but for your various information services it can be a big problem even if all they do is turn it off temporarily, and an even bigger problem if the turning it off involves deleting your stuff. Likewise for things like insurance where a gap in coverage can cause you to get fined or negatively impact your future rates.

Some of that can be mitigated by chasing it all down and switching them before the charge comes, but the labor to do that is a significant cost in itself and plenty of people aren't going to recognize the need to do it until it's too late, or try to and still miss some.

[lxgr]

> It's also not that hard to get two debit cards.

But then you need to have money in the other checking account too.

Still, completely agree with your larger point. It's a big hassle having to switch cards, and the status quo (i.e., the industry being in a multi-decade transition period towards acceptable security) is sometimes the worst of both worlds:

Half of all merchants don't support automatic card updates and need to be manually fixed, while the other half do and have a chance of keeping your card alive in a fraudster's account where it's on file if your issuer is not careful.

[xboxnolifes]

You have a debit card backup though in that scenario. Arguably, you can just do the reverse and have a credit card backup, but some things don't accept credit card as payment.