Are there any safety differences between linking my debit/Visa card to a website and linking my bank account directly?

Yes! Use your credit card. With your credit card, if something goes wrong, you can always charge back. With your debit card, the money is gone directly from your account and the power for the dispute is more squarely in their hands, not yours.

Consumerist.com has LOTS of articles about this, I’m going to see if I can find a few to come back and link.

Here is the ‘What is a Chargeback’ article. The answer is ‘something you can’t do with your debit card’ as the person a few comments down says.

I pay a few bills via bank account even though I know all the commenters at the Consumerist would yell at me because it is easy and frankly, I doubt the power company is out to steal my money and even if they are, I’ve tried getting an overcharged utility bill fixed before and it is basically impossible.

Great advice EmpressPixie. You should try and not link your bank account directly to utilities as you will have a harder time getting your money back compared to doing so with a credit card. Plus you may not be expecting this withdrawal, or for the amount it is, and you could have other cheques or pre-payments bounce, then you’re getting overdraft fees… it’s disasterrific. As well, if you sign up with a credit card that offers points or rewards, you can get rewards for simply paying your regular bills as you would normally do.

In terms of actual safety, it really comes down to the bank and credit company’s policies and procedures regarding unauthorized transactions (there’s not much point in discussing which actual data is more secure, it’s best to assume they could both be compromised at some time which is true). In my experience, credit card companies are more attuned to both recognizing and holding suspicious purchases, and dealing with unauthorized transactions if they do get through. Banks tend to require more information and hassle to freeze and reissue cards, compared to calling up the credit card company and having them immediately cancel and reissue your cards. The repercussions of changing one’s bank number can have more effects too – I’d have to change my payroll info at work, get new cheques, change other authorized withdrawls, etc.

So by this logic the credit card is more safe. If the gas company does not relent and will only accept a direct bank account link, try to find a bank account that has no monthly fees or limits, and set up an account solely for paying the gas bill. Leave some amount such as average bill price * 1.5 if you can just in case they tag on strange charges.

Never use a debit card to make purchases, as there is no consumer protection associated with it. There are two safe ways that you can pay bills online: you can set up automatic bill paying through the provider. This is done through ACH and is perfectly safe. It’s a great way to pay utilities, a mortgage, car loan, student loan, etc. The entity presents an electronic draft request to your bank and the bank pays it. It’s an account-to-account transaction, all electronic. The other way is to use your bank’s online billpaying software, where you can go in and determine who gets paid, how much, and when. With this type of arrangement, your bank actually mails a check to the person you are paying. There can be several days’ delay between you requesting payment and the check actually being issued.

With the ACH request, you have to make sure you have enough money in the account at all times. The transaction will always happen on a specific calendar date.

You are actually less safe linking your debit card than you are linking your routing number.

Not in my experience over many years and thousands of transactions.