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I'm sorry, but your post is completely wrong. If this was an essay on American retail banking, you'd receive an F. > Most Americans have (at least) those two a

I'm sorry, but your post is completely wrong. If this was an essay on American retail banking, you'd receive an F. > Most Americans have (at least) those two accounts, and those two cards. They usually spend from their checking account with their credit card, and save on the savings account. This is not true. A), most Americans do not have two accounts. The card used on your checking account is a debit card, and it does not allow you to have a negative balance without incurring a penalty fee. A credit card is a completely separate instrument that allows you to spend from $0 to -$<credit limit> with the understanding that > When they spend on their credit card, they sometimes "earn" points, depending on what agreement their bank has with the major retailers. This, broadly speaking, is not true. The bank rarely, if ever, has any direct dealings with the retailers. This is mostly done through the payment network (Visa, MasterCard, etc., which Europe has as well). > Salary is inserted on the checking account. Some people still receive salary on old fashioned paper checks. Some people still pay in stores using paper checks. Almost everyone, has a lot of paper dollars in their wallet since there are plenty of places in which you need it. This is not true. Income is deposited wherever you indicated to your employer. This can be separated between savings accounts, retirement accounts, checking accounts, investment accounts, or even deposited directly to prepaid cards. Check paying is exceptionally rare among people under 50 (except for some holdouts, like apartment complexes), and virtually nobody carries wads of paper dollars around anymore. Many trendier stores in cities are now 100% cash free and do not handle paper money at all. Checks might still be issued, but most banks offer instantaneous deposit via smartphone. > Now, on regular intervals, for example at the end of the month, Americans then transfer money from their savings account to their checking account if the salary is not enough to cover. If they forget, they pay high interests and fees. This isn't true. For one, the only reason to transfer money from your savings account to your checking account is if you need to make a purchase with your saved funds, i.e. you've spent in excess of your means for that month. The purpose of a savings account is... to save. The idea is the number of withdrawals from the savings account are limited (by law). In return, the bank can offer you higher interest on your deposits because the money is less mobile. In the past, these interest rates were decent (over 4% APY was not uncommon). Since the financial crisis, savings accounts from major banks have offered insulting low rates (in some cases 0.05%). You pay fees for drawing a negative balance in your checking account. Every bank now has the ability to link both savings and credit accounts to automatically cover these "overdrafts" automatically, with no user input. > Generally speaking, it's a hassle to transfer money to people you know and fees are hefty. When you use your credit card, no pin code is usually needed. There are regularly issues with your credit card being abused. This is somewhat true, but most banks are good at catching fraud before it becomes an issue for the customer. Europe, I might add, is not immune to credit card fraud despite using PIN codes for credit transactions. Debit transactions in the US commonly require a PIN code and have for decades, however this PIN code is not attached to the card chip like on European cards. Beyond this, it isn't like Europe is some alien planet. There are definitely countries in Europe which offer the Checking/Savings/Credit structure.

teach 8y ago
> Income is deposited wherever you indicated to your employer. This can be separated between savings accounts, retirement accounts, checking accounts, investment accounts, or even deposited directly to prepaid cards. As an American, I agree with all of the corrections in your comment except for this one. I'm willing to accept that your employment history is different than mine but I've never had an employer that supported this and I'd be really surprised if most Americans did. My employers have given me a choice: paper paycheck or direct deposit of the full amount. Full stop.
- jkqwzsoo 8y ago
  That's odd. I've always had the option for partial direct deposit (redirect a fixed $ amount or redirect a fixed % from each check to different accounts). Even my college job at a café had that option (to be fair, the checks were from the state comptroller's office, so the same system used to pay all state employees). My last employer even let me choose if I wanted monthly, bimonthly, or biweekly paychecks. [Edit: I shouldn't say that it's odd. It just runs counter to my experiences is all.]

teach 8y ago

> Income is deposited wherever you indicated to your employer. This can be separated between savings accounts, retirement accounts, checking accounts, investment accounts, or even deposited directly to prepaid cards. As an American, I agree with all of the corrections in your comment except for this one. I'm willing to accept that your employment history is different than mine but I've never had an employer that supported this and I'd be really surprised if most Americans did. My employers have given me a choice: paper paycheck or direct deposit of the full amount. Full stop.

jkqwzsoo 8y ago
That's odd. I've always had the option for partial direct deposit (redirect a fixed $ amount or redirect a fixed % from each check to different accounts). Even my college job at a café had that option (to be fair, the checks were from the state comptroller's office, so the same system used to pay all state employees). My last employer even let me choose if I wanted monthly, bimonthly, or biweekly paychecks. [Edit: I shouldn't say that it's odd. It just runs counter to my experiences is all.]