221–230 of 386 posts
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.
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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In EU most people use direct debit. The term "credit card" is almost synonymous with debit. Chargebacks theoretically exists but they are more complicated, I don't know anyone who ever did that.
Where do you live in Europe? This has simply not been my experience at all in France, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain so far. Online shops most of all don’t take debit at all and bricks and mortar shops will accept credit more often than debit. Again, my experience. And I prefer to pay with debit because I know the shop will pay less fees. I get refused at Starbucks, random shops in train stations, etc.
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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.
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.
A credit card, if misused, can run up your balance and then you dispute, and don't pay anything until it's resolved. A debit card, if misused, can drain your account and leave you penniless until it's resolved.
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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?).
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 exp…
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.
Eu: Most of the people I know use debit rather than credit because we can manage our finances.
It makes a lot of sense to avoid them if you know you are incapable of managing your finances, though.
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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.
As a US-ian I feel exactly that way when using a debit card. A credit card, if misused, can run up your balance and then you dispute, and don't pay anything until it's resolved. A debit card, if misused, can drain your account and leave you penniless until it's resolved.
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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.
Well in some cases paying with a credit card is the only option.
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How do you deal with fraud and people cleaning out your bank account money rather than OPM of a credit card company? Just have enough spare cash for a burner checking account and wait for the fraud reversal? In the US you'll almost always get your money back if someone defrauds your debit card but you could be in for a painful time if you depend on the money in that checking account until it gets fixed.
SEPA Direct debit still has a confirmation from the account holder. You usually see the pending transaction before it clears and can block it. Some banks (dreadful and hated bunq for example) require an active confirmation from the account holder before it is allowed to clear. Some have a setting hidden somewhere that sets the policy to autoaccept or something else . I haven't ever seen illegitimate direct debit. I g…
You are guessing right. To receive direct debit transactions, your bank typically forces you into an insurance contract to cover disputed transactions, plus they block a minimum balance on your account, plus they require some overview of your company assets, in case the former two measures aren't enough. No chance to get direct debit approved as a private person or small company. And the amounts you can receive, as well as the number of transactions will be limited to your insurance coverage. And if there are more than a very small number of disputes, you are done.
Which is why for small businesses, direct debit is only viable through some intermediary, if at all.
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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…
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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In EU most people use direct debit. The term "credit card" is almost synonymous with debit. Chargebacks theoretically exists but they are more complicated, I don't know anyone who ever did that.
Where do you live in Europe? This has simply not been my experience at all in France, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain so far. Online shops most of all don’t take debit at all and bricks and mortar shops will accept credit more often than debit. Again, my experience. And I prefer to pay with debit because I know the shop will pay less fees. I get refused at Starbucks, random shops in train stations, etc.