My credit cards I’ve had in Germany/Austria were all basically glorified debit-cards which had their own bank account attached to them. Technically I had a credit limit of a couple thousand, but I never went into the negative.
The only difference (for me at least) was that I could use them to rent a car, which is nice.
The way it works here is you can use a normal bank card to pay directly of your checkings account balance, meaning if you have insufficient funds, the card gets declined. A credit (debit) card allows you to pay regardless of you checkings balance. But at the end of the month your negative credit balance must be covered by your checkings account. If it doesn’t cover the whole sum, the debt interest kicks in. A true credit card is essentially the same, but instead of automatically balancing the credit, you have to manually transfer the money to the bank. The advantage being that you can use 2 different banks for credit and checking accounts.
Can you explain what you mean by being on the plus side? You’re supposed to have a balance on a credit card, like it’s a debit card?
My credit cards I’ve had in Germany/Austria were all basically glorified debit-cards which had their own bank account attached to them. Technically I had a credit limit of a couple thousand, but I never went into the negative.
The only difference (for me at least) was that I could use them to rent a car, which is nice.
Youre supposed to not be in debt, even if you’re allowed, that’s like the general consensus.
So are americans just not understanding credit cards or do they just not care?
I commented once about what a ripoff credit cards are and how they haven’t really taken off in other countries because they’re basically a scam.
I got verbally attacked by people telling me how great they are because they give you cashback
They genuinely thought the credit card company was giving them free money lmao
Basically the financial wherewithal of Liz fucking Truss
It’s a system designed to prey on vulnerable people. The world would be much better off without these cards.
A lot of people don’t understand them. Others don’t care, thinking they will deal with the debt later or never.
American basic education in math doesn’t really cover financial math much.
But how does it work, then?
You use the money you put in your bank account and that’s it.
That is a debit card, not a credit card. We also have debit cards in the US.
The way it works here is you can use a normal bank card to pay directly of your checkings account balance, meaning if you have insufficient funds, the card gets declined. A credit (debit) card allows you to pay regardless of you checkings balance. But at the end of the month your negative credit balance must be covered by your checkings account. If it doesn’t cover the whole sum, the debt interest kicks in. A true credit card is essentially the same, but instead of automatically balancing the credit, you have to manually transfer the money to the bank. The advantage being that you can use 2 different banks for credit and checking accounts.