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As an introvert who is paid to be an extrovert, some days drain me more than Drano.

Some days humans will fill me with humor and delight. I’m grateful to work at an establishment that ensures we meet weekly. 

One woman that causes such delight I’ll call Charlotte.

One day a while ago, Charlotte had a tale bigger than a whale and it was a reminder that when credit is used with caution, it crushes debit and its meager offerings. 

It began, as it does in our modern world, with an unprompted notification.

Charlotte was out to lunch at a fancy supper club in town. She was dining with her son and regaling him about her recent European trip. 

Despite having a blue-collar job, she and her husband saved enough to create wealth while many of their friends spent away their wealth. 

She was distracted when a text prompted her of a mystery charge. She assumed it was spam and ignored it.

Like a mosquito that refuses to be distracted from a tasty blood meal, the message returned and persisted. 

This time, her son investigated and convinced her to go to the lobby and call the bank.

She obliged, they left their seats, went to the lobby, and called. 

Turns out, Charolette’s bank was not questioning 1 but 4 recent purchases in an hour. 

Her card had been charged to a porn site.

Charlotte was aghast at the charges and claimed her case against them. It took little convincing as the attendant mentioned that is why she was receiving notifications. She hadn’t made any changes to that site before.

Dealing with debit and its little laminations too.

The highjacked card was her most frequently used card, a debit card. Ironically, she had a credit card that she used while abroad to prevent hacking. Yet it was her debit card that was safely stored in her safe that ended up stolen.

It was hard to uncover how or when her debit information was stolen. Since the card continued to sit safely in a safe while the fraudulent transactions piled in. 

The best course of action was to freeze her account. The bank wanted to cancel her bank account and issue her a new one. 

She refused. 

All her bills came from this primary debit account and instead of dealing with transferring all the bills, her account was placed on permanent ice.

Every transaction had to be verbally verified by a code she developed. 

It was a mess from start to finish. 

I shredded my debit card long ago. 

Like everyone else who has bills, I have a debit account. I have 2; one that my income pours into and where bills and investments pull from. 

I also have a debit account I call the burn account. 

In the burn account is $100, so if I need paper money, I use the burn account at ATMs. Or if I need to write a check, it comes from the burn account.

My main hub gets very little exposure and that’s exactly the way I want it. 

If my main debit account gets hijacked like Charolette’s, it’s infinitely more frustrating and challenging because of the role it plays in my finances. 

That’s why credit crushes debit and I use it for 99% of my transactions. 

Credit crushes debit because if it gets hacked, it’s easier to replace. 

Getting hacked always requires maneuvering money away from the guys with questionable moral standards.

From experience, it’s much easier to replace a card when it’s credit over debit. Debit has a bigger and more important role than credit. 

If I needed to sacrifice a number and its security, it’s going to be a credit card.

Credit crushes debit because an investigation is insignificant versus significant. 

When an investigation begins on fraudulent transactions in a debit account, that could cause a large sum of money to be placed in limbo. For Charlotte, it’s $100. For others, it’s thousands from fraudulent flights and extravagant shopping trips to Sephora. Having thousands of dollars frozen and inaccessible because of an investigation is exceptionally inconvenient for finances. 

With a credit card, if a charge is investigated, it has little impact on what I spend and use. 

Business Insider reports that, “Credit card companies offer more fraud protection under the Credit Billing Act. Many credit cards have zero-liability protection, which means you won’t be held responsible for fraud or unauthorized use of the card.”

Credit crushes debt, but not Charlotte’s spunk. Thankfully.

I’ve learned much from Charlotte and this is just one of many instances. She’s shown wit and wisdom when she’s faced challenges, from not getting her dream job as a flight attendant (she became a bookkeeper instead) to losing a child, she’s displayed strength and grace in the biggest challenges life has to offer.

However she continues the debit saga, I’ll be a rapt listener because that is the best way to salt away lessons and another reminder why credit triumphs over debit.