Pretty much every European country has their own incompatible, cheap debit card system. The problem is that they are incompatible, and often difficult to access

Pretty much every European country has their own incompatible, cheap debit card system. The problem is that they are incompatible, and often difficult to access for outsiders (non-permanent residents). As a contractor, I've be in large company cafeterias where the only payment option was such a card (getting by by handing cash to one of the employees I'm working with, high friction and not very professional). In the US, when I was an exchange student in the late 90s, I could pay with my local banks ATM card (so, a debit card) in the local supermarket. I can't remember how far that network extended, but it certainly existed. The reason credit cards are a thing is because processing payments between a global set of debitors and a global set of creditors, instantly and securely (and yes, despite various problems and shortcomings, on the margin, it's very safe), is a pretty hard problem, much more so 20-30 years ago when the current systems came of age. The credit part is necessary because until recently, the technology simply didn't allow for online processing of payments, all the way from the debitors bank account. The payment would clear against your credit, the expectation that you're good for it, not actual cash in your account. Running such a network is complicated, thus the fees. In the past 5 or so years, both Visa and MasterCard have introduced proper debit cards, that is, card where payments are instantly processed against your bank account balance. This is still complicated, but essentially a new, much simpler and more modern network, and thus fees are much lower. Despite the security of the legacy network, this is safer yet, which is good for both merchants and bank (and, indirectly, consumers, though arguments can be made over whether the lower fees outweigh the cost of taking on a higher liability). I expect expensive credit cards to largely go away, if not by regulation, then competition, and be replaced by debit cards and decoupled credit products and travel-benefits/insurance products. On the margin, the vast majority of users will (and economically should) prefer to save ~2% on their spending to earning airline miles.