I always find it funny that americans think the button to oppose a payement doesn't exists on my banking app because I have a debit card and not a credit card.
It's mostly about who possesses the money. With debit, the money is transferred. With credit, the money is scheduled for transfer, subject to my approval.
This has basically nothing to do with it. A bank deposit is a liability of the bank, and possession is not a useful lens here.
What matters are the legal and contractual rights and obligations you have against the card issuer. In the US, these are historically different for credit cards (Fed Regulation Z) and debit cards (Regulation E), but since it's now effectively the same two schemes running it all and imposing their additional liability protections (largely motivated by considerations of brand perception, which would suffer if the same logo sometimes confers weaker protections).
The main practical difference nowadays is that in the case of debit cards, you're out your own money for a few days, while with credit cards, the only thing that temporarily suffers is your open-to-buy/line of credit.
> The main practical difference nowadays is that in the case of debit cards, you're out your own money for a few days, while with credit cards, the only thing that temporarily suffers is your open-to-buy/line of credit
Right, and this is GGP's main point
The risk to a debit card user in the US is higher because the money you need to pay your rent or mortgage may temporarily disappear due to fraud, and may take longer to resolve than your deadline with your landlord. When using a credit card, that risk is not on you.
Ah, I see. This is about the prevailing consumer protections. In the US, debit is not treated with nearly as much privilege as the EU. While credit signals debt in the EU, debit signals poor financial situation in the US, since credit enjoys protections debit does not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possession_is_nine-tenths_of_t...