Quote:
Originally Posted by tirsales
Regarding DixieGals post: Well, that is one reason why I never understood the sense in credit cards. This is not meant to be judging - I simply dont understand the reasoning behind a credit based system. (Credits are fine - you sometimes simply need them (e.g. buying a house, but surely not for buying a car). But surely not to pay the monthly living?) The European system differs greatly - you have a bank deposit (where you deposit your money and get a (small) revenue for it). With your bankcard (EC-Card, Mastercard, DirectDebit Card, whatever) you can withdraw money from this deposit - but normally no more (not much more) then you have deposited. So you can only spend what you have, not take a loan for your normal living ... (in fact I do have a VISA card - which directly debits my bank deposit, I dont have (nor need) any credit ...)
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I use credit cards mostly to have most of my expenses as one bill (or three in my case, since I have three). It also helps me get a bigger picture about where my money is going.
I've always been wary of debit cards from the standpoint that I don't want my actual money to be THAT easily accessable. Maybe silly on my part, but that's the way I feel.