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I steal credit cards for a living 
My suggestion:
Step 1: Get a credit card to use whenever you would normally use a debit card. Ideally this card should have cashback, and make sure that they start charging interest when the payment is due instead of when you make the charge (they're rare but they do exist).
Step 2: Go to your bank and tell them that you just want an ATM card without debit. They will look at you like you're from Mars and ask you why but be persistent and tell them it's for fraud prevention. You will then receive a new card without the Visa or Mastercard logo that can only be used at an ATM.
Step 3: Pay off your credit-in-lieu-of-debit card on time every month without fail. If you have some big charge that you plan to pay off over a few months put it on a different card (or put it on this card and immediately transfer it to another card in one of those 0% transfer deals and then pay it off before you get whacked with back-interest).
Why would you want to do this? 4 reasons:
1: If you hand somebody a debit card and say "credit" when they ask you (or the guy who stole/cloned your card) will be able to sign for it as if it were a credit card, thus bypassing the security provided by the PIN. It's a bit like locking the windows and leaving the door open.
2: When you use a credit card you're entering into a contract to repay that money. If somebody forges your signature you never entered into the contract. You just dispute the charge and it disappears as if it never happened. The bank then has to figure our who stole their money and if they can't it's their loss. By law you are not liable for any more than $50 on a card and in practice most banks won't hold you liable for anything.
3: When you use a debit card and punch in a PIN instead of using a signature you are not entering into a contract so it's your money going to the merchant (as opposed to the bank's money when it's a credit card), and the guy who cloned your card is bypassing a security system. The legal liability issues are a lot more fuzzy about this sort of thing. In practice most banks still won't hold you liable for anything but you're still stuck waiting for them to put the money back in your account.
4: You'll actually save some cash doing it this way. As long as you pay the credit card off without fail every month you will never be charged interest or annual fees. The money sitting in your savings account will be collecting interest between when you "spent" it on the card and when you actually have to pay the bill, if you spend a lot every month this can add up. If you get a credit card with some good cash-back rewards you'll be saving even more.
My suggestion:
Step 1: Get a credit card to use whenever you would normally use a debit card. Ideally this card should have cashback, and make sure that they start charging interest when the payment is due instead of when you make the charge (they're rare but they do exist).
Step 2: Go to your bank and tell them that you just want an ATM card without debit. They will look at you like you're from Mars and ask you why but be persistent and tell them it's for fraud prevention. You will then receive a new card without the Visa or Mastercard logo that can only be used at an ATM.
Step 3: Pay off your credit-in-lieu-of-debit card on time every month without fail. If you have some big charge that you plan to pay off over a few months put it on a different card (or put it on this card and immediately transfer it to another card in one of those 0% transfer deals and then pay it off before you get whacked with back-interest).
Why would you want to do this? 4 reasons:
1: If you hand somebody a debit card and say "credit" when they ask you (or the guy who stole/cloned your card) will be able to sign for it as if it were a credit card, thus bypassing the security provided by the PIN. It's a bit like locking the windows and leaving the door open.
2: When you use a credit card you're entering into a contract to repay that money. If somebody forges your signature you never entered into the contract. You just dispute the charge and it disappears as if it never happened. The bank then has to figure our who stole their money and if they can't it's their loss. By law you are not liable for any more than $50 on a card and in practice most banks won't hold you liable for anything.
3: When you use a debit card and punch in a PIN instead of using a signature you are not entering into a contract so it's your money going to the merchant (as opposed to the bank's money when it's a credit card), and the guy who cloned your card is bypassing a security system. The legal liability issues are a lot more fuzzy about this sort of thing. In practice most banks still won't hold you liable for anything but you're still stuck waiting for them to put the money back in your account.
4: You'll actually save some cash doing it this way. As long as you pay the credit card off without fail every month you will never be charged interest or annual fees. The money sitting in your savings account will be collecting interest between when you "spent" it on the card and when you actually have to pay the bill, if you spend a lot every month this can add up. If you get a credit card with some good cash-back rewards you'll be saving even more.
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