4 ms·

This is a strong US vs the rest of the world difference. In the UK for example most people will do their day to day spending on debit because the rewards we get

This is a strong US vs the rest of the world difference. In the UK for example most people will do their day to day spending on debit because the rewards we get aren’t worth the faff of paying for things a month later, when you are less “flush” (Americans just seem to have a lot more money sloshing around compared to even well paid Brits and Europeans) it’s much harder to manage that monthly offset from salary payment to credit card falling due and when the rewards are so paltry it’s just nit worth the faff. Only one of my friends does any regular spending on a credit card and he says “it’s Amex so it’s worth the extra faff but only just”

barsonme 5y ago
> most people will do their day to day spending on debit because the rewards we get aren’t worth the faff of paying for things a month later, when you are less “flush” This sort of thinking misses the point that even with credit cards you don’t spend what you don’t have. You (ideally) treat it like a debit card. If I spend $100, then I’ve $100 less in my checking. If you do that, then “flush” never enters the equation.
- simonbarker87 5y ago
  Poor choice of word on my part I think. I don’t mean flush in that the following month you have more money but that in general Americans have more money and so are less susceptible to the ramifications of miscalculating. I’ve had a couple of long conversations with Americans about this topic of credit vs debit and the cultural difference is so strong that we inevitably can’t reconcile each others point of view. My debit card will bounce any payment that will take me over drawn, my credit card doesn’t care if I can’t pay it off next month and that’s what the banks hope you forget.
- xdennis 5y ago
  The possibility of spending more money than you have means you are more likely to spend more than you have
  - simonbarker87 5y ago
    A much more succinct summary than I gave that hits at the heart of the CC issue - the banks want you to spend more than you have.
- GordonS 5y ago
  This is what I do as well. Monthly bills are all direct debit, but almost all other spending goes on my credit card, and, without exception, I paying it off completely at the end of the month. I've done this for decades, and never paid a penny in interest - the key is to not spend money you don't have. I get some small amount of Amazon vouchers every month for doing this (£10/m or something like that), but really I do this for the fraud and chargeback protection. I feel like this works well for us, but you have to be able to budget - if you're not capable of budgeting or find credit too alluring, then you're better off using a debit card.
  - simonbarker87 5y ago
    Glad it works for you, we are very good at budgeting but i find u less you put 100% of the “cash” like spending on the credit card it falls apart as you can double spend without realising and when we tried it for a few months I hated paying for August’s groceries in mid October - it just felt weird to me, far easier just to have a set XX amount in a current account each month and spend it down to 0 through the month on the cash transactions etc.
    - drdec 5y ago
      With online account availability I've moved to paying my credit card weekly. I pay for everything with it.
    - astura 5y ago
      You can (and probably should) reconcile your credit card purchases more than monthly - I used to do it weekly (every Friday) now it's semimonthly.
- huge87 5y ago
  Correct. I use YNAB as a system to ensure that every dollar of spending on my credit cards are backed by liquid cash. I'm not going to argue the merits or downsides of something like YNAB; use whatever suits you. But when that card statement balance comes due every month, it should make no difference because the cash was already deducted from my books when I made the charge.
vel0city 5y ago
You miss out so much paying debit for things in the US. Most transactions net me 2-3% discount, I get baked in additional travel insurance on all travel I book with it, extra warranty on everything I buy, charge backs are easy when things go wrong, and if there's fraud I'm not out cash while things get investigated. A friend did all her banking in a single checking account. Her card was duplicated and completely wiped out. She filed with the bank for fraud charges. It took almost a week before most charges were wiped out. All the while she had literally no money to eat, buy gas, etc. If that was a credit card, it wouldn't matter. She would still have all her money. She could easily just use a different line of credit, use cash, or use her debit card. So paying a debit card gets you far less benefits and depending on viewpoint carries higher risks. But the benefit is you (sometimes) can't spend cash you do not have.

barsonme 5y ago

> most people will do their day to day spending on debit because the rewards we get aren’t worth the faff of paying for things a month later, when you are less “flush” This sort of thinking misses the point that even with credit cards you don’t spend what you don’t have. You (ideally) treat it like a debit card. If I spend $100, then I’ve $100 less in my checking. If you do that, then “flush” never enters the equation.

simonbarker87 5y ago
Poor choice of word on my part I think. I don’t mean flush in that the following month you have more money but that in general Americans have more money and so are less susceptible to the ramifications of miscalculating. I’ve had a couple of long conversations with Americans about this topic of credit vs debit and the cultural difference is so strong that we inevitably can’t reconcile each others point of view. My debit card will bounce any payment that will take me over drawn, my credit card doesn’t care if I can’t pay it off next month and that’s what the banks hope you forget.
xdennis 5y ago
The possibility of spending more money than you have means you are more likely to spend more than you have
- simonbarker87 5y ago
  A much more succinct summary than I gave that hits at the heart of the CC issue - the banks want you to spend more than you have.
GordonS 5y ago
This is what I do as well. Monthly bills are all direct debit, but almost all other spending goes on my credit card, and, without exception, I paying it off completely at the end of the month. I've done this for decades, and never paid a penny in interest - the key is to not spend money you don't have. I get some small amount of Amazon vouchers every month for doing this (£10/m or something like that), but really I do this for the fraud and chargeback protection. I feel like this works well for us, but you have to be able to budget - if you're not capable of budgeting or find credit too alluring, then you're better off using a debit card.
- simonbarker87 5y ago
  Glad it works for you, we are very good at budgeting but i find u less you put 100% of the “cash” like spending on the credit card it falls apart as you can double spend without realising and when we tried it for a few months I hated paying for August’s groceries in mid October - it just felt weird to me, far easier just to have a set XX amount in a current account each month and spend it down to 0 through the month on the cash transactions etc.
  - drdec 5y ago
    With online account availability I've moved to paying my credit card weekly. I pay for everything with it.
  - astura 5y ago
    You can (and probably should) reconcile your credit card purchases more than monthly - I used to do it weekly (every Friday) now it's semimonthly.
huge87 5y ago
Correct. I use YNAB as a system to ensure that every dollar of spending on my credit cards are backed by liquid cash. I'm not going to argue the merits or downsides of something like YNAB; use whatever suits you. But when that card statement balance comes due every month, it should make no difference because the cash was already deducted from my books when I made the charge.

vel0city 5y ago

You miss out so much paying debit for things in the US. Most transactions net me 2-3% discount, I get baked in additional travel insurance on all travel I book with it, extra warranty on everything I buy, charge backs are easy when things go wrong, and if there's fraud I'm not out cash while things get investigated. A friend did all her banking in a single checking account. Her card was duplicated and completely wiped out. She filed with the bank for fraud charges. It took almost a week before most charges were wiped out. All the while she had literally no money to eat, buy gas, etc. If that was a credit card, it wouldn't matter. She would still have all her money. She could easily just use a different line of credit, use cash, or use her debit card. So paying a debit card gets you far less benefits and depending on viewpoint carries higher risks. But the benefit is you (sometimes) can't spend cash you do not have.