5 Biggest Myths About Debit Cards

They’re equally secure. While debit cards are funded by your checking account, and credit cards allow you to borrow money to make your purchases, there’s no difference in their fraud protection. And, fraudulent charges are handled the same way for both. In general, cardholders notify their financial institutions about unauthorized charges and may get a credit while the institution confirms or denies the claim. At Navy Federal, cardholders are covered by our Zero Liability policy, which protects them from losing money in the event of confirmed fraud.

No. Credit scores are based on borrowing and payment history. In general, they’re calculated based on your credit history—factors like whether you make card payments on time, if you have different kinds of credit, how long you’ve been using credit and how much you have. Using debit cards doesn’t affect your credit score at all, even if you choose “credit” at checkout, because you aren’t borrowing to make your purchases.

Although there’s no difference between PIN and credit transactions at checkout, having a PIN does help keep your money safe if your card number is lost or stolen and a thief tries to make a withdrawal from your bank account at an ATM.

Yes. To protect cardholders against theft, financial institutions set daily limits on ATM withdrawals and cash back at the cash register. Navy Federal Credit Union’s daily limit on debit cards is $3,000 for all checking account types except Flagship Checking, which is $5,000. The ATM daily limit is $1,000.

Yes. Using a debit card is like using cash. So, as long as you have the funds in your account, you can use it to pay for anything—even if it only costs a penny!