It's similar in Australia, but Visa and MasterCard debit cards are rapidly becoming far more common (mostly due to the fact that you can use them online, I guess).
Between the fact that those cards can be used without a pin (or even without a signature for purchases under $100), and regular EFTPOS debit cards with a pin can be hijacked by skimmers if you're not careful, I think the best solution is to keep as small an amount of money in those accounts as you can. I rarely have more than $250 in any of my card accessible accounts unless I'm making a large purchase (although annoyingly this isn't much of an option when travelling since you can't rely on having an Internet connection to shift funds).
Between the fact that those cards can be used without a pin (or even without a signature for purchases under $100), and regular EFTPOS debit cards with a pin can be hijacked by skimmers if you're not careful, I think the best solution is to keep as small an amount of money in those accounts as you can. I rarely have more than $250 in any of my card accessible accounts unless I'm making a large purchase (although annoyingly this isn't much of an option when travelling since you can't rely on having an Internet connection to shift funds).