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On credit cards, the most important protection is the ability to charge back fraudulent purchases. You just call your bank, tell them which purchase is fraudulent and you'd like charged back for which reason, they then contact the seller to determine what happened, and if they either don't play ball or don't answer, they charge back and rip the money out of the recipient's accounts.

Real credit cards also have other protections, such as mobile device protection, travel insurance (cancellation, sickness, etc.), cash back (paid for by merchant with credit card fees), whatnot.

My (Canadian) recommendations if you get a real credit card is:

• ALWAYS pay the FULL amount on time
• Don't spend more than 50% of your total credit limit across all your cards. There is nothing wrong with increasing your credit card limit if it doesn't require a hard credit inquiry. The bank may even do a soft inquiry for you and offer it to you. Just because you increase your limit doesn't mean you need to increase your spending.
• Never spend more than is actually in your debit account, treat it exactly as if it were your money (because it is)
• Pay your cards manually as soon as the statement comes out. This gives you a chance to make sure your accounts are in order, there is no fraudulent activity and allows you to transfer money if needed to pay the card in full. Automatic payments usually happen at the end of the 30 day payment period, giving you no chance to react if you have insufficient funds or something goes wrong, leaving you with a mark on your credit record.
• Never pull cash from your credit card (called a cash advance), it is never worth it and you'll pay up the ass in interest. It's a scam to take advantage of poor people in a tough spot.
• Never leave open cards unused. If you have an unused card, put your online subscriptions on it.

Credit cards are good for their protections and to build up your credit score, but they have to be used correctly. The bank's hopes is that you'll fuck up someday and they can collect some sweet sweet interest from you. It's predatory at its core, but if you play your cards well, you can end up on top with the cash backs.

As for where to get prepaid cards, it depends on where you are, but in Canada, lots of banks offer pre-paid Visa cards, especially useful for teenagers so they can make online purchases without the responsibility of a credit card.

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I just looked it up, it was actually pretty hard to find. Desjardins and Scotia both discontinued their prepaid cards, but here's an example of one from CIBC: https://www.cibc.com/en/personal-banking/prepaid/ac-conversion-card.html