I've had many debit and credit cards compromised in the past, and except for one time, it was always the issuer who picked up on the fraud, blocked the charges, and took the initiative to call me and ultimately close and replace the cards. None of the replacement cards took more than a day to be printed and issued, and none of the charges except one were ever successful. With that one exception, the issuers declined or deferred the charges and called me to verify them.
The one exception was a counterfeited PayPal debit card that coincidentally was used in a Target store very near where I used to live in Queens, and where I still occasionally visited at the time. That charge wouldn't have triggered any red flags because it was made a place where I did in fact shop from time to time.
Because PayPal instantly emails and/or texts the user every time the card is used, however, I caught it and called them. The process of closing the card, ordering a replacement, and refunding the money to my account took less than five minutes. They also offered me the option to use the card one more time at a local ATM of my choice (they rattled off a list of every ATM in Sparrow Fart, New York over the phone), or to have money wired to my checking account, if I needed cash right away. It was an utterly painless experience.
That being said, it's possible that I got the white-glove treatment when I called PayPal. I've been their customer since before the company was even called PayPal. It was a service of some other parent company whose name escapes me at the moment. I also was one of their first merchant credit card processing customers, and a heavy user of their business debit card ever since it was introduced. It was my primary business payment card for routine and recurring expenses when I owned my consulting business. At the time, its 1 percent cashback rate was one of the best around. (It's still not bad.)
In all those years and all those dollars that I ran through PayPal one way or the other, I'd never before had a chargeback, complaint, dispute, or other untoward event as either a user or a merchant. So its possible that I got the VIP treatment when I called. Or not. Maybe they handle all fraud cases that way. I personally consider them a good outfit. Some disagree; but PayPal has always been good to me, and I've been with them since before PayPal was PayPal.
The advent of chip cards and changes in my plastic use have been 100 percent effective in curbing card fraud in my case. Back before they were commonplace, I started refusing to use any card that didn't have a chip, and refused to shop at stores that still used MagStripe. That left USAA and AmEx as the only cards I used for a while. All my cards except one (a single-store card) now have chips, which makes me happy because none of the chip cards have ever been compromised.
What would make me even happier would be chip-and-PIN, which would prevent a card from being used if I physically lost it. The signature requirement at POS terminals is bogus. Literally any scribbled gibberish will work. Chip-and-PIN, on the other hand, is almost impossible to defeat. It's the standard pretty much everywhere else in the plastic-using world. I guess Americans are too stupid to remember PINs.
I also continue to refuse to allow most merchants to store my card numbers unless they're store-only cards that can't be used elsewhere. I make exceptions only when there's something in it for me. For example, VZW and ATT have discounts for automatic billing, and my AmEx Simply Cash card pays 5 percent back for payments to wireless providers; so that one's a no-brainer. E-ZPass is another exception because my travel habits are irregular, and letting them store a card prevents my E-ZPass from ever being declined at a toll.
I'm noticing that a lot of issuers now offer the option of turning a card off without actually canceling it. Navy Fed, for example, offers that option on either the Web site or the app. I've never actually used it, but I can see where it could come in handy. There have been times when I've temporarily misplaced cards because I either slipped them in my jacket pocket after an in-person purchase, or left them in my desk drawer after using them online, rather than putting them back in my wallet. Then the next time I needed the card, it wasn't there. The option to turn temporarily-misplaced cards off rather than canceling them would have come in handy while I was looking for the cards.
Capital One also offers the option of generating one-time numbers for online purchases. I should use that more, especially for merchants I'm unsure about.
What it comes down to is that it's a minefield out there. A plastic combat zone. Chip cards have been a major and largely-successful salvo in the battle, but the war hasn't been won yet.
Rich