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You don't vigilantly monitor your account

Legally, if your credit card or its number is stolen, your liability is minimal $50 max. With debit, the law can leave you on the hook for considerably more. Visa and MasterCard, however, extend the better protection to signature-based transactions on debit cards displaying their logos. So it's pretty much a wash on liability.

That said, credit still has a major advantage: If your debit card or its number is used, the money is gone, and you'll have to jump through a few hoops to get it back. In the meantime you could bounce checks or miss bill payments.

The more times you use your debit card, the more you're potentially exposing its number to scammers. So if you don't have the time or energy to review bank transactions a few times a month, use a credit card instead.

That way, it's the bank's money that's on the line, not yours.

Back to Credit or Debit? How to decide