Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Outside of the US this is not true at all I think you meant "not entirely true". Yes, there are other options.
In Poland barely anyone uses cards for online payments. There are couple of different options: one-time automatic transfers that support major banks, BLIK (payment via one-time code), etc.
Exactly, and it works well. Unfortunately as a customer you don't have the level of protection with these services a CC or a specialised top up "virtual" debit card has. Charge backs etc. It's one of the reasons why these alternative payment methods are a lot less risky to process and therefore cheaper for the merchants.
So it makes me wonder why global companies like Google are so "credit card" centric. For example. You can attach a debit card as a payment mechanism for Google cloud services, but it can't be a top up one... Why? It is very annoying I have to open an extra account with overdraft block just to maintain some control on the spending if they suddenly decide to charge a wrong amount.