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Comment by Claudus | Hacker News Reader

For me, credit cards are a tool that gives me a 1% discount on purchases, and protects me from fraud.

I've made over $1,000 in cash back rewards and was refunded $250 in charges from 2 different purchases that turned out to be fraudulent.

I always pay my balance down to $0 at least once a month.

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Have you ever wondered where the money comes from to pay you the cash back? It's from charging higher merchant fees for rewards cards - so it's just a shell game really.

If merchants can charge a higher excess for rewards cards, that will help level the playing field.

It's a shame AmEx isn't included in the deal.

Your credit card didn't protect you from fraud, it exposed you to it. It's only because you paid for something by giving away a number that gives anyone arbitrary access to your bank that you had money stolen, had to watch your statements to notice it, and had to file a chargeback to get the money back. Hackers on the web can never reach into your wallet and take $250 -- this is a drawback of your credit card, not "protection" offered to you.

Not true. When making a purchase using a credit card, you are not giving "arbitrary access to your bank", rather you are giving access to your line of credit. There's a difference. In the case of fraud, the credit card company still has to collect from you. You can always not pay and dispute the charge. This is why I prefer credit cards over debit cards. In the case of a fraudulent debit transaction, my money is gone, and the burden to recover it is on me. In the card of a fraudulent credit card transaction, the bank is out the money, and the burden is on them to recover. Furthermore, federal law gives credit card holders protection to dispute charges over $50.

Yeah, it's a great tool like that. And my banks IOS app lets me adjust my limit - so I put it down way low unless there is some big purchase about to happen. After 10ish years I got caught recently and had to pay interest, something like 19 cents. Used carefully and they can be a great way to get cheap banking.

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