129: Why You Should Stop Using Your Debit Card

If you’re using a debit card for everyday spending, this episode is a must-listen.

Jessica and Brandon break down a real-life fraud situation and explain why the outcome would have been very different if a debit card had been used instead of a credit card.

In this episode, they'll cover:

•  The key differences in fraud protection 
•  Why debit card theft hits harder and lasts longer 
•  How to use a credit card safely without going into debt 
•  Simple ways to reduce your risk of scams and identity theft 

If you’ve been avoiding credit cards or aren’t sure how to use them responsibly, this will give you a clear, practical perspective.

As always, the goal is to help you feel confident and in control of your money.

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Money, relationships, and the mindset to master both. Hosted by financial advisor Brandon and his wife Jessica, The Sugar Daddy Podcast breaks down how to build wealth, unpack old money beliefs, and have real conversations about love and finances. Their mission? To help couples and individuals grow rich in every sense of the word: emotionally, relationally and financially.

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Transcript

Debit Vs Credit Setup

Jessica 0:00

In today's episode, we are tackling debit cards versus credit cards. If you're still using a debit card, listen up. You need to stop, and we're going to tell you exactly why. Stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Sugar Daddy Podcast, yo. Learn how to make them pockets grow. Financial freedoms where we grow. Smart investments, money flow.

Jessica 0:22

Welcome back to the Sugar Daddy Podcast, where we help you build a clear financial plan so you can feel in control and confident with your money. If you're an OG, welcome back. So glad to have you week over week. And if you are new here, we hope you'll stick around because we have a good time every Wednesday nerding out talking about money. Hey babe. Do you want to tell people what we're talking about today?

The $517 Fraud Text Alert

SPEAKER_03 0:48

Today we are talking about the protections that exist. Or I should say the difference in protections from using a debit card or a versus a credit card.

Jessica 1:01

Yeah, and what just happened to you?

SPEAKER_03 1:03

So the reason that we're talking about this is because literally this just happened to me where luckily I use my credit cards and I woke up uh because I wake up early in the morning to go to the gym, but I woke up and I And by early, he's not saying six.

Jessica 1:18

He's up at like 4 15 is when his alarm rings. Okay. He's one of those crazy people.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

But I um I woke up, you know, going to start to get ready to head to the gym, and I saw on my phone that I had a text message. So I went ahead and clicked on the text message, and it was from my Capital One. It was my Capital One venture card. Shout out to Capital One that they had flagged a um a transaction that it happened, like I got the text. I went the text I think came across like at like one one o'clock in the morning. So obviously I was asleep.

Jessica 1:48

Past our bedtime.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

They had flagged a transaction for$517 and some change in Georgia that happened. And they were like, hey, this looks suspicious. We're gonna go ahead and put a pause on this. Did you actually make this, you know, purchase? But for now, until you get back to us, we're gonna, you know, freeze it.

Jessica 2:06

Love that.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

So obviously, I was like, you know, I did not make that purchase. They were like, okay, so since you didn't make that purchase, we are gonna obviously submit the report. We're gonna also, you know, stop any other transactions on the card, cancel it, and process sending you a new card.

Jessica 2:20

Yeah, they are on it. Shout out to Capital One. We love you if you want to sponsor the pod.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

So all yeah, so all this happened while I was sleeping, and I didn't have to monitor myself because they were monitoring monitoring it for me.

Jessica 2:32

And you know what I absolutely love is like, how did they know that you weren't randomly in Georgia making a$517 purchase at wherever? But the fact that it was outside of like your normal spending pattern and they've got these protections, I'm sure it's AI-based, something in place to know like, that doesn't seem like Brandon. Like I tell you, when I go to Walmart once a year.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

You get a flag on it.

Why Debit Fraud Hurts More

Jessica 2:59

I get a flag. Every time it's like, ooh, you don't shop here. What is is this you? And I have to go on my app and say, yes, this was my my purchase. But it's really incredible that they know what you are and are not spending.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

And the thing is, like, the reason we're talking about this is because one, we always want to preface when we're talking about using credit cards, we're talking about using them responsibly. This is not talking about running up a high bill and then not being able to pay it off monthly, and now you're incurring additional interest and getting yourself into just, you know, high levels of debt. That's not what we're talking about. Right. You obviously have to establish the habit first to responsibly use a credit card. But once you but like I've met plenty of people that have good habits, but they just didn't have the financial literacy to use credit cards versus a debit card. So in this same scenario, if I had used a debit card, that money would have been gone. Gone.

Jessica 3:52

And it would take weeks to get it.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

And the thing is, in all honesty, like if they had, like, you know, when you have attached to an account, if you have a significant amount of money, that person normally is doing a test run first.

Jessica 4:02

I was gonna say the 517 was high because a lot of times it's like$10,$20, right? Let's see what we can get away with. But they just went full force.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

But in that scenario, like if say like it had been my debit card instead of my credit card, they would have had that amount go through, and then they probably would have done more transactions after that. Yeah until it got declined. And that money would have been gone because it's in my account and it wouldn't have been flagged. They would have just assumed I was spending because there's really no protection like that on your debit cards, to my knowledge that I've ever experienced.

Jessica 4:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

And it was just would have been money gone.

Jessica 4:32

And I think there's you know levels to like different banks might handle things differently, even on a debit card. But we had another fraud situation, which accidentally was on your debit card.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Business debit card. Business debit card. So luckily it was a little bit, it was still my money, but it wasn't um as much money.

Jessica 4:51

It wasn't like over 2,000.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

No, what I'm saying is they didn't have access to as much money because I don't keep as much in that in that account.

Jessica 4:57

But that one took way longer to get the money back. And that was just one of those, like, I messed up. I sent him a link and I was like, oh, they're running a huge sale. It was too good to be true. We should have known. He used his business debit instead of business credit. It was a whole thing. And it took weeks to get that resolved. Because here's the reality when somebody steals your money, the bank doesn't care as much because it's not their money.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

100%.

Jessica 5:25

Whereas if you are using your credit card, what you're essentially doing is you are borrowing that money. So yeah, they're gonna file the report, they're gonna flag it, they're gonna want their money back as quickly as possible. Whereas when it's in your debit, you know, your debit bank account, they're like, nah, we can take our time.

Use Credit Like Debit

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Yeah, I mean, luckily in this scenario where it was, you know, my business checking account, I did end up getting the money back. And I want to say that it took a little over a month for it to happen. Yeah, it was like a couple weeks. So just think about it this way. If you're somebody and that is your, you know, it was instead of it being a business account, it was your primary checking account, and you're almost living paycheck to paycheck. You are dependent upon that money to pay bills and get groceries and everything else. Now you are really at a hardship because you were out of that money. Right as compared to with a credit card, you know, it's not your money per se. So it's like, you know, if it if your fraud happens, it's not as if they took cash out of your pocket.

Jessica 6:17

Yeah. And I will say, because I know that there's going to be people listening who are like, I just don't trust myself with a credit card. I'm just not there yet. You can literally use a credit card just like a debit card. So you can swipe at the grocery store, and tomorrow you can pay that credit card off. You don't need to wait.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

You could pay it off the same day as well.

Jessica 6:38

I mean, you could, you know, as soon as it's yeah. I mean, but sometimes it'll stay pending for a little bit, you know. So I'm just saying give it 24 hours and then pay it off with the money from your checking account, right? So you're essentially using it like a debit card, but you're getting protections. Hopefully, you're getting perks, right? Like with our Capital One venture card. Um, you get two times the points on anything that you spend. So if you spend$100 at the grocery store, you're getting 200 points. Those points, you know, are things that we use to help us travel, book flights, et cetera.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

And the thing is, like, I have no idea how I have no idea how the person got the information.

Jessica 7:14

Right. I don't know. You are not missing your physical card. I have my physically have my card. Right.

Extra Layers Of Protection

SPEAKER_03 7:19

So like one of the biggest things too is that like now with the prevalence of online shopping, you've now opened up yourself to a whole, you know, broader um possibility of someone obtaining your information because they don't even necessarily like if they hack a company and the company has your you know information from purchases made, then they're gonna that's whether they're potentially obtained your credit card information, your debit card information. So the idea here is that you have to really focus on not just the oh, trusting myself habit-wise, which obviously is a big part of it, but ultimately you have to look at the protection aspect as well. Because that's even almost in my mind, it's almost an even bigger part.

Jessica 7:57

Well, and we're constantly getting, I mean, once a month we get a letter saying this system had a breach, this you know, company that you purchased something from had a breach. There's so many breaches that have nothing to do with us that we don't control. So limiting what people have access to, which is like your cold hard cash in your bank account, is gonna be the way to go.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Because I would even say, like, for example, if you're listening to this episode and you're like, I don't really care, I'm still gonna use my debit card, I'm not gonna use my credit card. I belie there are ways to limit your exposure even with a debit card.

Jessica 8:32

Yeah, don't keep a lot of money in your account.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

It's not even that. Really, what you with the debit card, you should never just be putting your information into the like, say if you're shopping online, put it in there. At least use like a wallet. Like, for example, you know, like Apple Pay or something like that, where you have some layer of separation of your actual information.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

And I mean in all honesty, like whenever most of the time that I'm doing stuff online, I'm actually using a virtual version of my card. Because with a lot of the credit cards, they also allow you to have a virtual card, which isn't the exact same number.

Jessica 9:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

So that can add some level of protection there. But the biggest thing we want to stress here is that like if I had been using my debit card, I would not have known that money was gone until I checked my bank account. Because a lot of people, so one thing that we do have, we have set up also where we have alerts that above a certain amount, the um, whether it's our debit, you know, whether it's our bank account, credit cards, once uh above a certain threshold has been taken out, we get alerts. So if you don't even have the, if you have a debit card and you're using it all the time, you don't even have alerts set up, you're not gonna know until you go to check your bank account. And most people don't check their bank account on a daily basis. So who knows how long before you actually figure out, hey, there was fraudulent activity. Exactly.

Jessica 9:48

Well, and on the credit cards that we have that we don't actively use, like ones that we open to get whatever kind of you know bonus or a points offer, then it's like, oh, anything, you know, above$25, and I'm getting a text alert because I'm not using that card. So there should be no charge on there. So again, there's protections that you can put into place to help monitor, you know, what's happening on that card. And then they are just so proactive about making sure that the transactions are yours, they look like yours, etc. So, you know, we are huge advocates of using credit cards for that reason alone. But I mean, there's so many other benefits as well. So if you are still using a debit card, maybe look into switching for some protections. Uh, we'll link some of our favorites.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Yeah, I mean, shout out to Capital One for like protecting that and stopping it because obviously I wasn't at 1 a.m. in Georgia buying whatever.

Jessica 10:50

Yeah, they went they went hard in the paint.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

Um had to be something very specific. We're trying to get it.

Jessica 10:57

I also, if we're talking about just general kind of protections, not just debit versus credit. One thing that um we do when we travel and actually all the time is when I do have a wallet with me, it's an RFID protected wallet because people, especially in crowded places, if you're hopping in an on and off of public transit, people will have these little scanners that you don't even know exist.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

And they're just chips now we have.

Jessica 11:21

Yeah, and they're just scanning whatever they can to grab your card details. So if you have an RFID blocking wallet that will prevent that from happening. And then most importantly, our credit bureaus are always, always, always locked. They stay locked unless we are opening up a new line of credit.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

So transuning in the wording is either locked or freeze, depending on the credit bureau.

Jessica 11:43

And then you can draw it or unfreeze it. It's completely free. It's literally the best thing that you can do to protect and safeguard your credit. TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian are the three credit bureaus. This is where your credit score comes from. But this is what's pulled when people open up lines of credit. So if people are applying for a credit card, a mortgage, a personal loan, a car loan, et cetera, that that's what they're gonna be pulling from. So if you keep those locked, that is going to prevent identity theft and fraud. So transunion.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

Well prevent identity theft because they can still steal your information. They just can't open something.

Jessica 12:20

They can't open new. Yes, they can't do that. Right, right. Okay. Um, so always, always, always keep them locked or frozen. It's free. Just go to those three websites or Google, you know, transunion credit freeze, Equifax Credit Freeze, and Experienced Credit Credit Freeze, create your online profile and then you can easily thaw it or unfreeze it whenever you do need to open a line of credit. I love it too, because you know, anytime you go to a department store and they're like, oh, do you want to save 10% on your purchase? Nope, I literally can't because I do need to go through a process to open or unlock or unfreeze or thaw whatever verbiage we want to use. The credit. So if you are more of an impulsive person and you're like, Yes, I want to save$4.62 on my purchase by opening this 32% APR credit card, please don't do that. Um, it'll block you from doing that. So it actually helps you from making maybe some poor decisions, you know? So definitely do that. But we are big advocates of credit over debit to help you stay safe. So if you have any questions, definitely let us know. If you have any experiences of your debit card getting hacked and it taking forever to get your money back, obviously we're sorry that happened, but we'd love to hear from you. Um, and if you want any of our favorite recommendations for the credit cards that we love, then we will drop that link in the show notes as well. We'll talk to you next week. Don't forget, Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. You just got paid. Until next time.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Sugar Daddy Podcast go. Learn how to make the pockets grow. Finance and freedoms where we grow. Smart investments, money flow.

Jessica 14:12

Thanks for listening to today's episode. We are so glad to have you as part of our Sugar Daddy community. If you learned something today, please remember to subscribe, rate, review, and share this episode with your friends, family, and extended network. Don't forget to connect with us on social media at the Sugar Daddy Podcast. You can also email us your questions you want us to answer for our past the sugar segments at thesugardaddypodcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail through our Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Our content is intended to be used and must be used for information for us public. It's very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based upon your own personal social standards. We should take independent financial advisor reliance professional and connect to it for independently research and verify any information you find in our podcast and which rely upon with it for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise.