Man, I remember when the common wisdom was that there would NEVER be enough people willing to put their credit card into a web browser to support a business.
Uh, debit cards are the worse as they (technically) don’t allow you to dispute charges like in a credit card. Money comes right out of your account first, and then you have to try to get it back.
> debit cards are the worse as they (technically) don’t allow you to dispute charges like in a credit card.
That's a commonly propagated falsehood. Both legally (Regulation E) and practically (all large card networks require issuers to extend a zero-liability policy to debit cards), consumer protections are very similar.
The big difference is that, as you say, with a debit card you're potentially out the money for a few days, which can be unpleasant if it makes the direct debit or check for your rent bounce.
I once had an issue where they drained the account (transactions weren’t blocked by the bank until the account didn’t have sufficient funds), and it took the bank a full month to investigate and refund.
That's unfortunate, and almost certainly a Regulation E violation on their side. They're supposed to provide a provisional credit within 10 business days.