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Comment by didntcheck | Hacker News Reader

[In the UK] despite the verbiage on most sites still saying "credit card", I've been using ordinary debit cards (from both Visa and MC) online for as long as I've shopped online, and never had a single issue related to them being debit. For many years I didn't even have a credit card

Edit: it's possible that this is an issue of semantics. My cards have been debit cards in every sense of the term - they are labelled as such, are linked to a specific current account, and debit it immediately - but I don't think any of mine have actually said Visa/Mastercard Debit. So strictly speaking they may be implemented as a sort of instant-clearing credit card - essentially shimming debit onto credit infra. I don't know a whole lot about the finance industry or its tech, so if anyone can chip in please do

Edit 2: Ah, my current one does have "debit" in the MC hologram on the back

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I'm in the UK and my debit card literally says "VISA debit" in the lower right corner (with "debit" in much smaller text).

In any case, there are a couple of important semantic differences between a debit card vs a credit card that you pay off immediately:

* you automatically get insurance/protection for certain purchases in a credit card (so I read, I've never used it)

* It's much worse if someone steals your debit card details and starts making purchases than it is for a credit card, because it's linked to your current account that you use for other stuff. If your credit card gets deactivated for a while then it's no big deal really.

> ...because it's linked to your current account that you use for other stuff.

I solve this by having separate accounts for the debit cards that get manually populated with some money every now and again.

I also have a separate account to pay "Bills that will make me homeless if I don't pay them", so no matter what happens with my debit cards (and no matter how long it takes the bank-issued checks (some of my creditors still refuse to do electronic transfers, I have no idea why) to be cashed), I know those pending payments are accounted for and will not bounce.

The "automatic insurance" thing is called section 75 protection. Legally it's more limited than you might think - it only applies to purchases over £100 and under £30000 for example and I think there's a lack of clarity if eg PayPal purchases are covered or not even within those limits.

However, the debit card industry (as do some other oddities like Amex charge cards) largely voluntarily offer very similar protection to section 75 on debit card purchases and the credit card industry largely voluntarily offer the same protection on purchases under £100.

Back in the day, UK debit cards were issued on distinct networks from credit cards - eg: Switch, Solo, and Maestro. Those cards weren't necessarily accepted in all the same places as credit cards, particularly internationally.

But over the past 10 years or so, those debit card networks have been phased out in the UK and almost universally replaced with Visa and Mastercard debit cards. As far as acceptance goes, these are pretty much 100% identical to using credit cards on those same networks.

I'm also based in the UK and, in my experience, debit cards actually tend to be slightly more widely accepted than credit cards, even online.

But by and large, if a website accepts Visa or Mastercard, it doesn't tend to matter if it's a debit or credit card.

> But by and large, if a website accepts Visa or Mastercard, it doesn't tend to matter if it's a debit or credit card.

One large exclusion here is for gambling sites. Gambling using credit card sourced money was banned in 2020: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news/article/gambling-...

I think it's just inexact US terminology that has become global through the internet because they (IMO rightly) mostly use credit cards for normal purchases. My browser says it saves 'credit cards' - in reality it saves both credit and debit.

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