Dutch attitudes to debt are different from the US, Canada, Australia and UK. Dutch mortgages have historically been very high: mortgage interest was tax deduct

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.