Having lived in Argentina and The Netherlands all my adult life, I don't fully grasp why you even need those companies -- probably due to the fact that average

Having lived in Argentina and The Netherlands all my adult life, I don't fully grasp why you even need those companies -- probably due to the fact that average citizens never deal with those (if they even exist here). I do think that American culture is a lot more credit-based though, whereas in many places, people don't spend money they don't yet have (eg: I don't have a credit card, and neither do the grand majority of my friends).