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The Average of average debt per household as a percentage of yearly income in northern EU countries is 100+% [0]. I myself am from NL and in the red for several

The Average of average debt per household as a percentage of yearly income in northern EU countries is 100+% [0]. I myself am from NL and in the red for several times my yearly income. Granted, this is mostly due to high mortgages and thus the debt is offset by a valuable, but non-liquid, asset. Discounting mortgage debt, my experience is that the average household doesn't really get into that much debt; credit card debt is fairly uncommon (but maybe also a taboo subject), whereas it is, as far as I know, pervasive in the US. Anecdotally, I only got a credit card 3 months ago, after I _had_ to ask a friend to book a flight for me because the checkout would _only_ accept credit card, and subsequently the return flight was booked for the wrong date. I haven't used the credit card yet. [0] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tec00104 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&...

stevesimmons 7y ago
Dutch attitudes to debt are different from the US, Canada, Australia and UK. Dutch mortgages have historically been very high: mortgage interest was tax deductible, and at one stage Dutch banks would lend you 120%, capitalising the purchase costs and often extra to update the kitchen and bathroom. On the other hand, Dutch personal unsecured debt was very low. Anecdotally, Dutch people don't like purchasing on credit. Partly that's a cultural aversion to debt for consumption. And partly a reflection of the Dutch banking system, which historically charged very high interchange fees for credit cards, hence credit cards had low acceptance by merchants (the biggest Dutch supermarket chain still doesn't accept credit cards, much to the surprise of tourists). Also, when I worked in the Dutch credit card industry (running operations and credit risk for one of the big banks), 80% of the credit cards were actually charge cards, contractually obliged to pay off 100% at the end of each month. Only 20% were able to carry a revolving credit from month to month.

stevesimmons 7y ago

Dutch attitudes to debt are different from the US, Canada, Australia and UK. Dutch mortgages have historically been very high: mortgage interest was tax deductible, and at one stage Dutch banks would lend you 120%, capitalising the purchase costs and often extra to update the kitchen and bathroom. On the other hand, Dutch personal unsecured debt was very low. Anecdotally, Dutch people don't like purchasing on credit. Partly that's a cultural aversion to debt for consumption. And partly a reflection of the Dutch banking system, which historically charged very high interchange fees for credit cards, hence credit cards had low acceptance by merchants (the biggest Dutch supermarket chain still doesn't accept credit cards, much to the surprise of tourists). Also, when I worked in the Dutch credit card industry (running operations and credit risk for one of the big banks), 80% of the credit cards were actually charge cards, contractually obliged to pay off 100% at the end of each month. Only 20% were able to carry a revolving credit from month to month.