Don’t Pay With Debit for Anything You Can’t Afford to Lose
Low-cost airline Wow Air went out of business last week, canceling all flights and putting passengers aground wherever they were at the time.
This also poses a problem for anyone who purchased a Wow Air ticket with a debit card, as explained by Michelle Singletari of the Washington Post :
Last week, my daughter broke into my office in desperation.
She is scheduled to travel to Ireland in June. And the return flight, which she had booked from Dublin by the Icelandic low-cost airline Wow Air, has just been canceled after the company announced it would stop flights without warning.
She was worried not only about finding another cheap place. She used her debit card to pay for the flight. She complained that as a college student, she could not afford to lose $ 350.
Debit cards have significantly less protection than credit cards – which means that while you can get your money back if you book a flight with a low-cost airline that stops operating without notice, it’s much more difficult than using credit.
If you list your debit card number in an online store “probably not a scam” or give it to a low-cost shipping company, or if you run your credit card through a gas station and get hid, or if you provide your debit card information to a large corporation ( Target, Marriott) to a major security breach – if you pay with a debit card for pretty much anything and get tricked or screwed up, you can recover any unexpected damages.
However, you will have to act quickly. As the FTC explains , if you report a loss within two business days, you will only be liable up to $ 50. (Yes, this means that if someone uses your debit card information to make a fraudulent $ 100 purchase, your bank may say, “Sorry, you only get $ 50 back.”) If you report a loss between two business days and 60 calendar days, you will be liable up to $ 500. If it takes you more than 60 calendar days to do this, you’re out of luck.
Update: As commenter Quaykid pointed out , these rules only apply if your debit card is lost or stolen. To quote the FTC: “If someone makes unauthorized transactions with your debit card number, but your card is not lost, you are not responsible for those transactions if you report them within 60 days of sending you the statement.”
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to credit cards and the protections they provide. If debit is your best or only option, keep an eye on debit card activity so that you can report any unexpected or unauthorized transactions as quickly as possible. The faster you act, the more money you can save.
But if you have a credit card, don’t use it to pay off money that you cannot afford to lose.
Updated at 3:25 pm, June 10, 2019: This story has been updated to reflect more precise FTC regulations.