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“You shouldn’t be using a Debit Card Online.”

+1000.

It’s a mistake to have a debit card in the first place, in my opinion. If it is your ATM card, you can go to your bank and get a replacement card that is ONLY an ATM card (for cash) You will REALLY have to fight for it. Just plop yourself down in a chair and do not give up until they agree to an “ATM only” card. They DO NOT want ATM only cards, they LOVE debit cards because in the end, you can definitely get dinged for the fraudulent or disputed charge.

The problem with a debit card is, that if there is a disputed charge, even a potential or actual fraud, the charge remains on your account unless and until resolved. If it never gets resolved, that charge belongs to you. A credit card, all you have to do is to call them and dispute the charge. They will send you a form to fill out & sign, no big deal. But the funds get reversed into your account pending resolution, and YOU get the benefit of the doubt, not the vendor or the fraudster. It’s a giant difference even if it doesn’t sound like it.

TNoldman is correct. Debit cards have insufficient protections regarding fund reclamations. Credit cards pretty much give card holders carte blanch to reverse erroneous charges and their fraud controls are always more fierce.

Also, your bank is garbage (can’t access your transactions?!). Move your accounts to a small local owned bank or credit union where they are hungry for customers and have real customer service. A bank that has issues with double charges not being dropped off properly and can’t view or find them has crap software and lousy IT support.

Get an Amazon credit card <or a reloadable gift card if she has spending issues) and pay it off in full every month. One that lets your view your statements in real time so you can spot issues right away.

Its convenient to use a debit card. No credit card fees or interest, no need to make a payment. It makes sense if all it were was a way to transfer money. Unfortunately, its being used for many more reasons.

You’re right about using credit cards. Most people don’t know how that process works and what the advantage is, so allow me to explain it from the (first-person) perspective of a merchant.

When you initiate a credit card transaction your credit card info is transmitted to a merchant service company, who acts as an intermediary between the merchant (Amazon in this case) and the credit card company (visa, mastercard, etc.) The merchant service company gets a percent of the sale for their fees. This can be anywhere from 2-5%, plus other fixed fees per month and per transaction, depending on the terms that are negotiated with the merchant.

The merchant is responsible for anything they sell. If a merchant has invented a widget and sells 100,000 of them, all the money that constitutes is sent to them sans the merchant services fees. Likewise, if they sell any product, the transaction clears and the money is sent to them... but...

Here’s where it gets tricky and can be really expensive for the merchant.

IF the merchant has a sale from a stolen credit card that sale can be charged back to them by the credit card company when the card holder reports the transaction. This can also happen when a customer wants to return a purchase and is not allowed by the merchant for some reason. In either case, the customer complains to the credit card company about the transaction and the credit card company initiates a chargeback.

Chargebacks cost extra fees. In some cases, a single chargeback can cost over $125 (or more) even if the item that was fraudulently purchased costs much below that figure. This is because when a chargeback is initiated by the credit card company, the money for the “fraudulent” purchase is taken from the merchant service company and returned to the customer by the credit card company. The merchant service company then takes the money from the merchant to cover these transaction reversals, and charges fees just like a bank does for NSF checks.

If those 100,000 widgets come with a warranty that has to be honored by the merchant, the merchant must have the funds to cover replacements, repairs, or refunds to the customer. If they don’t or can’t then do so, the credit card company is contacted by the customer and a chargeback occurs, with all attendant fees and requirements.

You can probably see how this can turn into a bankrupting nightmare for the merchant. Merchant service companies generally require either a personal guarantee (owner of the company pays out of pocket to cover these events) or some sort of insurance to cover the fees, if the company cannot pay the fees directly.

Going back to Amazon- they are so huge that they likely have the most favorable of terms for chargebacks. But even then, because of their volume chargebacks become a huge profit destroyer, so in almost all cases their return process is very easy and favorable to the customer.

Merchant services companies use statistics via actuarial risk assessments similar to what insurance companies do to set rates. Some types of business are considered high-risk and get higher fees. High risk businesses can lose their merchant services if their chargeback rate goes over 5% of their sales revenue.