"Generally speaking, it's a hassle to transfer money to people you know and fees are hefty." This hasn't really been true for a long time. Most banks particip

"Generally speaking, it's a hassle to transfer money to people you know and fees are hefty." This hasn't really been true for a long time. Most banks participate in Zelle, which lets you transfer money for free to just about anyone via your phone. Every national or regional bank I can think of is a member. Venmo also does this. "in America, you regularly spend time on the phone talking to robots and objecting to expenditures you didn't make" Regularly? I am a heavy credit card user and I've had a card compromised once about 10 years ago. I talked to a human at the bank to clear it up and they had a new card in my mailbox the next day. The whole "points" thing is an oddity, I'll grant. But we're used to it and it's highly advantageous to the consumer if you pay off your cards every month. It's worth about $1000 per year to me.