Comment by vel0city

So now I hope you can better see why it doesn't really make sense to always use a debit card here in the US. There are still interchange fees, things can still be processed as swipe + signature or just the numbers printed on the card, and you risk your own money whenever its spent fraudulently.

While there are still some interchange fees involved, its less than the overall fee with actual credit cards. Its often more like 0.5% + $0.21, the max allowable fee under the Durbin Amendment.