271–280 of 473 posts
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Huh?
Based on the downvote and your reaction, I assume I misread something. We're talking about why Americans sometimes prefer paying with cash over credit card, no?
To me, it's like claiming "black people like chocolate!". They do. So do most people. Why single out black people?
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Whole Europe does this. I never understood why whole nation wants to live in debt just to have one extra month of cash flow (which they’ll probably squander soon).
Because it gives me 2.5% cash back, which is basically free money.
Important context: this is US thing. EU capped interchange fees at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit cards. So in US card processing is x5-x10 more expensive.
In Germany I saw they charged extra for using my credit card. A U.S. retailer told me the credit card companies won't allow that in the U.S.?
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I'm 46. I've never had a credit card. I have a bank account and a debit card. If I can't afford something, I don't buy it. You can just opt out of using credit cards.
Whole Europe does this. I never understood why whole nation wants to live in debt just to have one extra month of cash flow (which they’ll probably squander soon).
If I could get a debit card that gave me 2% cash back on all transactions, I'd use that instead!
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By US standards? No, probably not. But, a quick search indicates you can get similar broadband in Glasgow, Scotland for ~15 GBP/month. And Rome, Italy looks like ~25EUR/month.
I’m in Stockholm, and our condo HOA (BRF) includes 1Gbps per unit in the fee for all units because billing individually would cost more in admin than the service itself. We have FTTP and then cat6 to each unit.
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Bit for bit, internet access is cheaper in America than it is in Canada or Australia. Canadians like myself have ~40% of our provincial taxes spent on healthcare, so in my case about ~8% of my gross income. Somewhere in the tune of $20k/yr. While I was living in Seattle and filing American, quite a bit less of my gross income went to healthcare. Just food for thought.
"I make $250k CAD a year, my experiences must be representative of, and relevant to, the masses," is a wild thought to have. Well, maybe I spoke too soon, because my private American healthcare turns out to also be about 8% of my gross income (of $60k)(before copays and my deductible)(and also it's crap). Twinsies! But yes I agree that it would be awful to have my health needs taken care of and a mere ~160k USD left…
I think either way both of us are in really good shape. In my experience the quality of American care is better in nearly every regard (having experienced both pretty intimately), but the simplicity and the peace of mind of the Canadian system has its benefits too. In either case you end up paying.
> But yes I agree that it would be awful to have my health needs taken care of and a mere ~160k USD left to spend on everything else.
I’m confused - do you actually think it’s awful?
Credit cards also transfer wealth from people who pay interest to people who don’t. It’s a silly system, where everyone has to invest their time (optimizing for rewards, avoiding interest) in an ultimately negative sum game. I hate it so much.
I gave up long ago trying to optimize any rewards, it just ended up being stressful and not really worth it ultimately. Now I just use my apple card everywhere, pay it off every month and get whatever rewards I get. It feels like a weird situation, those that stand to gain the most from credit cards are also the ones that should feel a difference of under $100 in rewards the least. The one exception I see is bonus si…
The gain of a few thousand per annum is not worth the mental distraction.
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I used to have this same mentality (no credit cards) when I was younger, until my debit card was stolen and someone took $1000. The bank basically shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do. I always get my money back when this happens with a credit card purchase. I've also had to dispute things occasionally, and I almost always get refunded.
In an alternative universe, the government could require banks to refund victims of theft and fraud. It's entirely possible for banks to do this without requiring you use a credit card, they just don't want to. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-... > Industry body, UK Finance, estimates that criminals successfully stole £1.28 billion through banking fraud and scams in 2025. Of this, £703 mil…
Anyway, the credit card companies (Diner’s Club and Bank Americard, now Visa but still retaining the original color scheme and logo) lobbied Congress in the late 60s to get these protections enshrined in law so that consumers would get a benefit over using cash as a positive incentive to switch.
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I gave up long ago trying to optimize any rewards, it just ended up being stressful and not really worth it ultimately. Now I just use my apple card everywhere, pay it off every month and get whatever rewards I get. It feels like a weird situation, those that stand to gain the most from credit cards are also the ones that should feel a difference of under $100 in rewards the least. The one exception I see is bonus si…
I've generally tried to stay with cash back rewards in categories that don't change, that's been the best way to balance complexity with rewards for me while not nudging me to buy stuff I don't actually need. I don't like messing with points or rotating categories or included subscriptions. With one exception I avoid annual fees as well. So like, I have a card that's 6% on groceries, another that's 3% on gas and rest…