Read a great article in the Post that will make Sanchek's panties bunch up. It was on Nov 9th by Jane Engle called "Don't bank on help, use credit card instead".

The jist is that when you use a credit card your credit card company guarantees you will receive what you paid for. Say you pay cash for a flight and the airline you booked it on goes out of business all of your money is forfeit. With a credit card, you call and charge it back and get a full refund. Ditto for internet purchases, hotels, anything where you may not "get what you paid for". Kinda like Lummus's problems with ebay, if paid with a credit card he'd have only a 30 second phone call to get his money back.

Since in the next year an estimated 8 percent of all of our online businesses will go "out of business", potentially just days after you buy something (like christmas presents) and you won't receive either.

I can't find the article because I'm on my phone @ work ... but if someone could link it, its a good read for these times.

Read a great article in the Post that will make Sanchek's panties bunch up. It was on Nov 9th by Jane Engle called "Don't bank on help, use credit card instead".

The jist is that when you use a credit card your credit card company guarantees you will receive what you paid for. Say you pay cash for a flight and the airline you booked it on goes out of business all of your money is forfeit. With a credit card, you call and charge it back and get a full refund. Ditto for internet purchases, hotels, anything where you may not "get what you paid for". Kinda like Lummus's problems with ebay, if paid with a credit card he'd have only a 30 second phone call to get his money back.

Since in the next year an estimated 8 percent of all of our online businesses will go "out of business", potentially just days after you buy something (like christmas presents) and you won't receive either.

I can't find the article because I'm on my phone @ work ... but if someone could link it, its a good read for these times.


One problem, when a company goes out of business it is usually done in tandem with a bankruptcy filing. You can't get a successful chargeback against a company or individual who is in bankruptcy. That would violate federal bankruptcy law. So good luck!

A Visa Check card has the same fraud protection as a Visa card. I've used it before, when the card was stolen out of my car. They instantly credited my account with every penny I reported as fraud. Same thing once when a company double billed me for something I ordered online, and wouldn't refund the overage.

If your credit card protects you, so does my debit card. /shrug.

What's better, I didn't have to sit on hold and deal with some moron on the phone to get it done. I went over to my local Suntrust branch and got it resolved right away, dealing face to face with a real person.

Personally, I value my experience a bit more than the financial advice from a "Travel Insider" at the LA Times.

AMEX service has always been very good but I can't speak to other's. The only consideration for me with debit cards is that I do not like a direct line to my bank account. I of course have one, but do not generally use it for anything. Most of my bills are charged to a card with the bank and auto-paid from there, which gives me a buffer between any fraudulent or otherwise unexpected activity and my actual money movements. (well, actual is relatively speaking here!)

I do not use a debit card for the reason Malse gave, regarding a link to my bank account. And, I don't even have a PIN number on any of my credit cards, because I refuse to use ATM's. I just stop by the bank, which is just across from work on the way to my route, and grab some pocket cash every couple weeks.

One thing I like with Discover, is that when I drove out to Michigan a couple years back for the Lost Fires get together, and was using the Discover for gas on the trip, they contacted me to verify the card had not been compromised, seeing I had not used it out of state like that before.