| ▲ | cloudengineer94 4 hours ago |
| Reminder to the people reading this thread and overall comments, that in Europe everyone uses Debit Cards instead of Credit Cards. Credit Card in Europe is very much associated with Debt. |
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| ▲ | subscribed 7 minutes ago | parent | next [-] |
| That reads like "in Europe" (which is a pretty diverse place? "everyone thinks debit is credit and credit is debit"? I don't think that's the case. |
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| ▲ | lxgr 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Reminder to all commenters that Europe is not a single homogeneous country and somewhat diverse in various things, including payments and finance. Credit cards are definitely a thing in many European countries. |
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| ▲ | hyperman1 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | In my corner of the world, credit cards were for buying stuff on the internet and travelling outside the EU. Now the net has evelved enough to accept our normal means of payment. I always feel insecure when using a credit card. | | |
| ▲ | TFNA 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Pretty much all of the EU had Visa- and Mastercard-branded debit cards since the turn of the millennium, so one has been able to buy stuff from the net and travel abroad without use of a credit card for decades now. |
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| ▲ | PNewling 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | As an outsider: which countries lean which way? I'm curious how things trend where and I didn't even really know that debit was used by a majority in certain places (Countries? Regions? Historical based delimiters?). | | |
| ▲ | tlogan 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Germany is very debit-card oriented (with no interest of switching). The Netherlands seems similar. Eastern Europe and the Balkans are also mostly debit-card oriented, but people seem more open to switching to credit cards (if they can get one - especially the younger generation). Ireland and the U.K. seem much more credit-card oriented than rest of Europe. Turkey is also very CC oriented (kinda strange - was not expecting that). | | |
| ▲ | physicsguy an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | In the UK people predominantly use debit cards but credit cards are widely available. Everyone gets a debit card with any current account (i.e. non-savings account). In March this year there were 2.3 billion debit card transactions vs 400 million credit card transactions according to this: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spe... | |
| ▲ | illiac786 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It used to be like that in Germany, it changed quite a bit. My debit card now is refused more often than my master card when I’m in Germany. I do tend to stay in large cities and not in the country side though, so my perspective is not a statistic. But it definitely changed massively during Covid. Before Covid shops refusing _any_ card where still common (again, large cities is my spectrum) and debit card were accepted vastly more often than credit card. | |
| ▲ | surgical_fire an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | In Ireland and the UK, from experience, people use debit cards a lot more than credit cards. |
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| ▲ | ben_w 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Credit cards are definitely a thing in many European countries Yes, a thing associated with debt. I lived in the UK before Brexit, and that would be an example of such. | | |
| ▲ | lxgr 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | You are of course free to extrapolate your experience from a single European country to the whole continent, but it's still not a coherent argument for or against anything. |
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| ▲ | xquce 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | which ones use Credit Cards to a larger degree than Debit Cards, like they do in the US? | | |
| ▲ | lxgr 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | That's not what GP said. They claimed that "everyone" in Europe uses debit cards, and that's just not true. | | |
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| ▲ | anygivnthursday 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Not everyone. We use both and mostly credit card for online payments that we pay off at the end of the month. It has a limit and it is easier deal with potential fraud vs a debit card where your own money goes. But does it matter? All my debit cards are Visa and Mastercard anyway. |
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| ▲ | orwin 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| And even when you have a credit card, it might act like a debit card (every payment shows as debit in your banking app, even if you really pay on the 10th of the month or something). |
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| ▲ | tomp 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| which is in fact a massive pain in the ass, because car rentals and hotels often require credit cards to make reservations (at least in my experience...) |
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| ▲ | izacus 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yep, although a huge % of banks are issuing Visa and MasterCard debit cards as default nowadays. |
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| ▲ | preisschild 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yes. Most people here (Austria) use their mastercard debit card to pay cashless. You get them at 14 already IIRC. |
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| ▲ | paulsutter 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Note to Europeans: Americans use credit cards and rarely debit cards because here the terms on debit cards are so much worse (for contesting charges, etc), so debit cards never really caught on for anything more than withdrawing cash. In the US, users of debit cards are assumed to be uncreditworthy, because debit cards in the US have such bad T&C's that poor credit score is the main reason folks use them here. |
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| ▲ | lotsofpulp 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The article uses the term credit card for apparently no reason, because Visa and Mastercard also support debit cards. The EU is probably more concerned about Visa and Mastercard payment networks being under the control of American leaders. |
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| ▲ | Muromec 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | We call every card a credit card even if most of them are actually debit. | | |
| ▲ | calgoo 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | we dont in spain, we call it "tarjeta de debito" and "tarjeta de credito" or just "la tarjeta" or the card. | | |
| ▲ | cuvert 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | And in Italy many people say Bancomat when they want to pay with the card even if they don't have a card with that circuit anymore. |
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| ▲ | testfrequency 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Slowly coming to a close in the US also. Some places already of course not accepting Amex, some places not accepting Visa Infinites (CSR, Venture, etc). The future of banking is direct. The days of free rewards at a loss are gone as premium US cards are nearing the $1,000 AF mark for luxury coupons. |
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| ▲ | Ylpertnodi 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Eu: Most of the people I know use debit rather than credit because we can manage our finances. |
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| ▲ | urda 34 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Rest of the world: most of us figured out how to use credit as a tool without tumbling into a spending pit. Takes a bit of discipline, sure but not impossible. "I use debit because I can manage my finances" reads as "I don't trust myself with credit." If credit is a trap you have to avoid, that's not the flex you think it is. It's a tool. Some people use it. Some people are scared of it. | |
| ▲ | imartin2k 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I only use CC, to earn airline points (based in Sweden). But I always pay the entire amount due at the end of the interest-free period, so I never pay interest. I also like the fact that using a CC comes with better buyer protection than debit cards. | |
| ▲ | ZekeSulastin 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | How exactly does “we can manage our finances” follow from picking debit over credit? | | |
| ▲ | ben_w 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Can't go into debt if you don't have a line of credit. | | |
| ▲ | greyface- 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | If one is capable of managing one's finances (and paying the card off in full every month), credit cards are a useful tool. They're a problem if one can't manage one's finances. | | |
| ▲ | hkpack an hour ago | parent [-] | | It is interesting that both options of either not using CC entirely or using CC but paying it off by the end of the month are equivalent, but you’ve somehow reframe the second ine as some virtuous skill one have to master (I’m not just buying bread, I’m also managing my finances by repaying the value of it in full by the end of the month to avoid being charged for interest and simultaneously improving my credit score). Business model of banks in regard to CC are preying on people not paying it all in full for various reasons. | | |
| ▲ | greyface- an hour ago | parent [-] | | Financially, they're not equivalent. If you buy your bread on credit, you get an interest-free loan, and benefit from the time value of the money that you otherwise would have paid immediately. As you correctly point out, this value comes from those fleeced by the arrangement. If my comment attributed any moral valence to the two options, that was unintentional. |
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| ▲ | retired 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| And most Europeans that have a credit-card need to pay them off at the end of the month. Technically they are charge cards. Unlike a traditional credit card, a charge card does not allow you to carry a revolving balance. |
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| ▲ | nswango 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | This is not true. Plenty of Europeans have credit cards which work exactly like US credit cards. The main difference between credit cards in Europe and in the US is that poor people can't get them here. | | |
| ▲ | lxgr 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Let's not pretend that predatory lending is not a thing in at least some EU countries as well, just because it takes other forms (installment payments, buy now pay later etc.), but as a general trend, I'd agree that it's much less common. |
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| ▲ | lxgr 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Can we please cool it with the sweeping "most/all of Europe" assertions? This, just like credit use overall, is also highly country/region specific. |
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| ▲ | Oarch 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I'm in Europe and I can't say this is the case at all. I've never heard anyone express such an idea. |
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| ▲ | OoooooooO 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | It is in germany. | |
| ▲ | amelius 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Did you grow up in Europe? | |
| ▲ | l23k4 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It is a prevalent view among the lower socioeconomic classes. | | |
| ▲ | gpvos 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Among the middle and higher as well. | | |
| ▲ | amelius an hour ago | parent [-] | | The problem as I see it is that you pay your credit card bill only once a month which gives you no bearing on your effective balance. This is mostly a problem for lower and middle income people who live from paycheck to paycheck. | | |
| ▲ | watwut an hour ago | parent [-] | | Middle and higher income people dont need debt on monthly basis and see not having that debt as personal virtue. It just makes no sense to not pay things right away. | | |
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