Should I use my credit or debit card when purchasing groceries?
When I go grocery shopping, I almost always purchase enough to warrant using a card rather than cash. I used to use my debit card for these transactions, but twice in the past (each incident about half a year apart) shortly after doing so I have had my credit union report that the account connected to my debit card had fraudulent charges, and I had to get the card replaced.
Since then I have been using my credit card for store purchases, because it is my understanding that credit cards come with built-in fraudulent charge insurance. But I am wondering if this is actually more secure than using my debit card, and if there are any other concerns I should have with using my credit card for this regular (sometimes bi-weekly) purchase. But on the other hand, my credit card does offer cash rewards, so using it frequently may be a better tradeoff.
It is better to use a credit or debit card when making my regular grocery purchases, or does it make no difference?
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For safety, I would always go with a credit card. The fraud protection is generally better, although that gap is closing and many debit cards include similar fraud protection now as well.
The key though is that in the event of a dispute, your money is at stake when you use a debit card (those funds might be unavailable for you to use), while on a credit card, it's the issuing bank's funds, and that's the bigger advantage I think.
Also many credit cards offer cash back/points on grocery store purchases so that's a possible advantage but not really relevant to the fraud/safety concern.
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