12 ms·

Here's why: two debit cards, one for receiving money, one for spending money. Automated payment from the 1st one to the 2nd one once a month with a fixed amount

Here's why: two debit cards, one for receiving money, one for spending money. Automated payment from the 1st one to the 2nd one once a month with a fixed amount you expect to spend in a month. Nothing to pay off, you're spending your own money, can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, if someone leaks your spending card they can't touch the majority of your money, no scummy business practices. Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so.

iso1631 5y ago
Your plan might work with a pre-loaded credit card
gambiting 5y ago
>>one for receiving money, What do you mean debit card for receiving money? In what sense? >> Automated payment from the 1st one to the 2nd one Again, I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that. Payment from a debit card to a debit card? What?
- toyg 5y ago
  I guess he's trying to compartimentalize so that, if the spending account is compromised and depleted, the main-income one is untouched. Seems like a lot of work to do what CCs do automatically. I guess the upside is that crazy spending is impossible (well, if you make sure to forbid negative balances on the spending account) and it's impossible to accrue interest.
  - oarsinsync 5y ago
    > well, if you make sure to forbid negative balances on the spending account I'm unaware of a UK bank that will let you do this, so...
    - tazjin 5y ago
      Monzo. It's the default in fact, since in order to get an overdraft you need to do a credit application.
      - gambiting 5y ago
        I'm with Barclays and Lloyds, and neither can go into negative(well, technically they can I suppose, but it's extremely hard to do. Any debit card or direct debit transaction will just get declined if it's about to go below 0).
        blibble 5y ago
        any offline transaction under your floor limit can put you into unauthorised overdraft e.g. a train ticket purchase from a guard using a mobile terminal
        kalleboo 5y ago
        I haven't lived in Europe for a while but it used to be common to issue online-only debit cards (VISA Electron, Maestro etc) for this reason, have these fallen out of fashion?
        blibble 5y ago
        they were common for a bit in the 2000s (mostly with kids), then seemed to go away for a while they were very easy to spot as they didn't have the raised digits (for the imprinting machine... old fashioned offline transaction) now they're coming back again, but still not super common
      - oarsinsync 5y ago
        There's a difference between having an arranged overdraft, and being able to have a negative balance (also known as an unarranged overdraft). Monzo's own help pages explicitly state that your balance can go into the negative, because offline debit card payments will not be rejected. They'll also gladly take you into the negative if you owe them money (e.g. through a Monzo Plus or Premium sub, or use their Flex service). Search Monzo help for "Unarranged Overdrafts". As far as I'm aware, there is no UK bank that will guarantee they will reject all payments and never let you go into a negative balance on a debit card transaction. This is also a profit centre for them, so there's little motivation to actually do so.
- kalleboo 5y ago
  Multiple bank accounts, each with it's own associated debit card
  - Hamuko 5y ago
    If you only have a bank account for receiving money, then you don't really need a debit card for that bank account.
- simonh 5y ago
  I take it they're separate accounts.
  - ljm 5y ago
    You can basically just sign up for an account with Revolut, Monzo, or Starling and use it purely for spending. Keep your primary account for getting paid, and for covering bills, then load up the second account with play money for the month. I know a few people who do this. I just use an AmEx account but it's a little frustrating that you can't set a spending limit on the card.
- ahoka 5y ago
  Yeah, that makes no sense?
Blackstone4 5y ago
Don't most people do this with a credit card they pay off most months? This is what I do plus credit cards give more protection than debit cards. I have the majority of my net worth invested at one of my brokers and I tend to hold minimal cash in my bank account...better to be invested than hold cash these days.
refurb 5y ago
You could just automate payment of your credit card bill and get all those benefits plus more consumer protection.
c16 5y ago
The flip side to this is using something like an Amex which offers insurance, points, business lounge access and much more. Set up the card with diret debit (much like your automated payments) and never spend above what you can afford. You now have perks, points, insurance, consumer protection and still zero worries.
- stuaxo 5y ago
  It's pretty expensive to have an Amex card, I had one for a bit, but ended up not really using it so the £ they wanted seemed like a rip-off in the end.
  - maccard 5y ago
    There are many amex cards which don't have any fees, they even have a filter for them on their website [0] https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/all-cards/?intlink=uk-en-hp-product1-all-personal-04032021 https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/all-cards/?i...
    - nixass 5y ago
      Amex is terrible card in EU. High fees, many places rejecting it, I see no real reason why to use Amex over Visa or Master/Maestro
      - maccard 5y ago
        The link I shared is a list of cards from Amex that don't charge any fee. Anecdotally the number of places that reject my personal amex is very close to zero (there's one cafe enar me which doesn't take it). > I see no real reason why to use Amex over Visa or Master/Maestro Cashback/rewards, and it's accepted on Amazon in the UK after this year is a really good reason to use it over Visa at least. Maestro is non-existant in the UK. Maybe mastercard is a better choice, but I carry two cards _anyway_ , so one might as well be an Amex, and the second should be a mastercard?
pittmajp 5y ago
What about all the free money you're leaving off the table in miles and cash back? I've had a credit card for about 3 years, and while it isn't much, I've never paid a dime in interest and I'm up roughly $800.
- ahoka 5y ago
  Big corporations giving people free money sound kinda unbelievable, don't you think? They must actually make money on card holders for this to be profitable. The obvious way is that some people will overdraw sooner or later, the other is that people with credit cards simply tend to spend more (some say about 10-15%). The average credit card debt in the USA is more that 6000$.
  - vel0city 5y ago
    The "average credit card debt" is a bit difficult to really measure. That isn't necessarily the amount of interest bearing credit card debt which IMO is the real concern. I've have some credit card debt, none of it carries any interest. When I buy appliances or furniture I usually take the interest free financing despite having the ability to pay. Why pay a few grand today when you can spread that out interest free for 2 years and let that value appreciate? I would have lost out on tons of money if I had sold investments up front to buy those goods. So instead of getting rid of all that money a year ago, I got 30% gains in the market.
- nly 5y ago
  Perks on credit cards in the UK are almost non existent because the fees are so low compared to he US. Historically the EU regulated to crush credit card transaction fees. That said, I do get annual cashback of 1% on one of my cards.
  - cjrp 5y ago
    Cashback perks aren't great, but the airline credit cards are quite good if you'll definitely use the miles.
mattowen_uk 5y ago
> Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so. Bizarrely, never owning a credit card will negatively impact your credit rating.
- gifnamething 5y ago
  Expecting someone to lend you 6 figures when you've never displayed any ability to repay 2 is far more bizarre.
  - maccard 5y ago
    A credit rating basically isn't considered for a mortgage in the UK. They will check a report, and maybe request you pay outstanding debts (I was asked to clear my CC balance before completion both times), but unless you have a fraud marker or are bankrupt it won't affect you. Mortgages are secured on the asset, so it's far less risky than a personal loan of 5x less - the bank can seize the asset and force the sale of the home (and that difference in risk is reflected in the difference in borrowing rates).
    - chanc3e 5y ago
      My experience is they do indeed dig into your credit report and will approve/deny based on it. Not sure where your information to the contrary comes from? https://www.which.co.uk/money/mortgages-and-property/mortgages/getting-a-mortgage-with-poor-credit/bad-credit-mortgages-ay2m91n0u9mu https://www.which.co.uk/money/mortgages-and-property/mortgag...
      - carnitine 5y ago
        They explicitly mention a report. It’s just the number rating which is irrelevant.
    - TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
      Most UK CC T&Cs state explicitly "If you have a home, we will go after it if you default." Personal loans have similar recourse. Neither are truly unsecured. It just takes longer than an outright repossession because it takes two or three court claims instead of just one. The debt collection industry relies on this, and regularly forces sales of property to pay back CC and other debts. So CCs are disastrous for people who can't pay their debts. Not only are the interest rates extortionate, but for lenders they're almost as safe as a secured loan. And because of the high rates they can be considerably more profitable.
baq 5y ago
90% of this is what a credit card already is... the only tricky thing is the limit which might not be as easily configured, but it certainly can be.
heurisko 5y ago
> Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so. I own a credit card, as you get additional consumer protections using a credit card rather than a debit card in the UK. Pay it off in full every month. No problem.
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  It is an insurance policy then. Have you calculated how much this insurance cost you? Credit card fees, the inevitable 'forgot to pay it off' etc.
  - GoodbyeMrChips 5y ago
    In the UK, credit cards are free (some specialist cards aside), including an automatic direct debit so you never forget to pay it off, so you never get charged interest. Never paid a penny in fees or interest in over 15 years.... and an annual statement of fees (issued by law) informs me of this fact each year.
    - smaryjerry 5y ago
      Same in the US. Credit cards are so convenient and free and come with rewards. Of course most people don’t realize until they are older that all that ‘money back rewards’ was essentially paid by themselves originally, by the vendor paying the credit card company a fee on every transaction. The issue is that credit card companies build in requirements to be endorsed that they don’t charge different prices for cash only transactions often.
  - fuzzer37 5y ago
    Yes. Anyone paying fees on a credit card should jump ship, that's a huge red flag. And I've made more in cash back rewards than I'll ever pay in interest.
  - tialaramex 5y ago
    There is no "inevitable forgot to pay it off". Last century when I was old enough I got a credit card and the bank set it to automatically pay off every month. The bank says to itself, full balance of this account this month is say £462.83 and must be paid on or before the 7th of December, then it sets a transfer to occur from my checking account for the amount £462.83 on the 7th of December. No "forgetting" possible. Indeed if say an IT problem occurs and they can't do that transfer under UK law they eat the fees incurred. "The customer must be made whole". As to fees, the merchant doesn't have to accept cards, as we see with Amazon, if they don't like the fees. Why should ordinary consumers care? When we were part of the EU the cards couldn't charge excessive fees, now Brexit allowed them to unlock this potential source of profit.
dustinmoris 5y ago
> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, ...and can't get a mortgage and buy a house because you have no credit score.
- simonh 5y ago
  You don't have to have running shoes to be able to run. I haven't owned a credit card for 15 years and my credit score is just fine.
  - dustinmoris 5y ago
    That's not how it works in the UK though. You need to be having credit in order to build up credit score.
    - simonh 5y ago
      Sure, I've taken out loans, had several mortgages, multiple bank accounts, paid all my utility bills. All of that can influence your credit scores. It is possible some people could have so little credit history that having a card for a while might be beneficial. I don't know enough about the system to be sure, so maybe I was being a bit flippant, for which I apologise.
- sildur 5y ago
  That only applies to the US.
  - dustinmoris 5y ago
    Nope, that also applies in the UK.
  - hackeraccount 5y ago
    It's wildly overstated in the US. Having a CC and not paying it off in a timely manner definitely affect your score but the difference between having a card and not having one isn't as big as people make out. If you have proof of income you're going 90% of the distance.
ryanlol 5y ago
> you're spending your own money I can’t even begin to imagine how you could see this as an advantage. It’s really not.
aysfrm11 5y ago
In Europe just using debit cards is perfectly viable in 99% of the cases, however when it comes to car rentals you are still in some locations forced to provide a 'real' credit card. I write 'real' since most of the FinTechs like Revolut, N26 etc often issue debit cards that may fail in exactly that situation. It doesn't help if your account is flush with 10k USD and a car rental could easily block 2k for claims on your debit card, some will just not accept Revolut & co. Thus I am always forced to carry an emergency backup credit card from a major bank just to be on the safe side... Very much looking forward to the day some other means of international payment (crypto?) will be generally accepted.
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  I am so fortunate to live a in a truly free country that has not yet caved in to most of the western crap despite being a western first world country. Spain. Here the rental companies accept even cash, and the person who pays doesn't even need to be the same as the one who rents.
- londons_explore 5y ago
  They require a credit card because credit card companies have robust ID and credit checking. If their ID checks weren't great, someone could steal the whole credit limit. Banks and debit providers also do ID checks, as required by law, but don't check anywhere near as hard, since there is no way to steal money from the bank if your account can't go negative.
rlpb 5y ago
> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero In the UK, it's really hard to get a bank account where they'll do that. Instead they'll pay it, call it an "unauthorised overdraft" and then charge you for that. This is their business model - it's how they make sufficient income to operate. There are "basic bank accounts" which don't provide a credit facility, but these only exist because people with poor credit histories can't get bank accounts otherwise, and the regulator has threatened to enforce their availability otherwise. However since this means that there currently isn't any rule, the banks make it very difficult for an ordinary person (with good credit) to open a "basic bank account".
- imwillofficial 5y ago
  “it's how they make sufficient income to operate.” No. This is how the practice parasitism on the poor.
  - rlpb 5y ago
    To be clear, I don't agree with it, but it is how the current account market in the UK operates. More information here: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03941/SN03941.pdf https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03... And a Supreme Court decision here: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2009-0070-judgment.pdf https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2009-0070-judgme...
- Closi 5y ago
  > In the UK, it's really hard to get a bank account where they'll do that. I'm pretty sure all of them do, just ring up your bank and ask them to set your overdraft limit to 0 I've certainly done this with HSBC & Santander in the past, and when I got my Monzo account it was 0 by default (You had to sign up for an overdraft if you wanted one).
  - rlpb 5y ago
    An overdraft limit of 0 just means that you end up in an unauthorised overdraft sooner. Monzo might be an exception here.
tigershark 5y ago
How is this better than having a single credit card that gives you automatic protection and insurance on everything that you buy without having to think to stay under your self imposed limit otherwise you have to manually top up the card with the amount that you need to spend?
- effie 5y ago
  You can set it up more easily in Europe, getting a credit card is not as easy here.
Bobylonian 5y ago
My mom has exactly the same system with her two debit cards and I have not taught her that - she is naturally smart. So proud of her and you too ;) Cheers!
ethbr0 5y ago
Do UK credit cards typically offer cash back? In the US, 2%+ on all purchases (either directly or through points) is pretty standard. Going up to 5%+. But I know this can be very different in other countries. I believe Japan has little to no incentives?
- kmlx 5y ago
  amex does this in the uk

iso1631 5y ago

Your plan might work with a pre-loaded credit card

gambiting 5y ago

>>one for receiving money, What do you mean debit card for receiving money? In what sense? >> Automated payment from the 1st one to the 2nd one Again, I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that. Payment from a debit card to a debit card? What?

toyg 5y ago
I guess he's trying to compartimentalize so that, if the spending account is compromised and depleted, the main-income one is untouched. Seems like a lot of work to do what CCs do automatically. I guess the upside is that crazy spending is impossible (well, if you make sure to forbid negative balances on the spending account) and it's impossible to accrue interest.
- oarsinsync 5y ago
  > well, if you make sure to forbid negative balances on the spending account I'm unaware of a UK bank that will let you do this, so...
  - tazjin 5y ago
    Monzo. It's the default in fact, since in order to get an overdraft you need to do a credit application.
    - gambiting 5y ago
      I'm with Barclays and Lloyds, and neither can go into negative(well, technically they can I suppose, but it's extremely hard to do. Any debit card or direct debit transaction will just get declined if it's about to go below 0).
      - blibble 5y ago
        any offline transaction under your floor limit can put you into unauthorised overdraft e.g. a train ticket purchase from a guard using a mobile terminal
        kalleboo 5y ago
        I haven't lived in Europe for a while but it used to be common to issue online-only debit cards (VISA Electron, Maestro etc) for this reason, have these fallen out of fashion?
        blibble 5y ago
        they were common for a bit in the 2000s (mostly with kids), then seemed to go away for a while they were very easy to spot as they didn't have the raised digits (for the imprinting machine... old fashioned offline transaction) now they're coming back again, but still not super common
    - oarsinsync 5y ago
      There's a difference between having an arranged overdraft, and being able to have a negative balance (also known as an unarranged overdraft). Monzo's own help pages explicitly state that your balance can go into the negative, because offline debit card payments will not be rejected. They'll also gladly take you into the negative if you owe them money (e.g. through a Monzo Plus or Premium sub, or use their Flex service). Search Monzo help for "Unarranged Overdrafts". As far as I'm aware, there is no UK bank that will guarantee they will reject all payments and never let you go into a negative balance on a debit card transaction. This is also a profit centre for them, so there's little motivation to actually do so.
kalleboo 5y ago
Multiple bank accounts, each with it's own associated debit card
- Hamuko 5y ago
  If you only have a bank account for receiving money, then you don't really need a debit card for that bank account.
simonh 5y ago
I take it they're separate accounts.
- ljm 5y ago
  You can basically just sign up for an account with Revolut, Monzo, or Starling and use it purely for spending. Keep your primary account for getting paid, and for covering bills, then load up the second account with play money for the month. I know a few people who do this. I just use an AmEx account but it's a little frustrating that you can't set a spending limit on the card.
ahoka 5y ago
Yeah, that makes no sense?

Blackstone4 5y ago

Don't most people do this with a credit card they pay off most months? This is what I do plus credit cards give more protection than debit cards. I have the majority of my net worth invested at one of my brokers and I tend to hold minimal cash in my bank account...better to be invested than hold cash these days.

refurb 5y ago

You could just automate payment of your credit card bill and get all those benefits plus more consumer protection.

c16 5y ago

The flip side to this is using something like an Amex which offers insurance, points, business lounge access and much more. Set up the card with diret debit (much like your automated payments) and never spend above what you can afford. You now have perks, points, insurance, consumer protection and still zero worries.

stuaxo 5y ago
It's pretty expensive to have an Amex card, I had one for a bit, but ended up not really using it so the £ they wanted seemed like a rip-off in the end.
- maccard 5y ago
  There are many amex cards which don't have any fees, they even have a filter for them on their website [0] https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/all-cards/?intlink=uk-en-hp-product1-all-personal-04032021 https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/all-cards/?i...
  - nixass 5y ago
    Amex is terrible card in EU. High fees, many places rejecting it, I see no real reason why to use Amex over Visa or Master/Maestro
    - maccard 5y ago
      The link I shared is a list of cards from Amex that don't charge any fee. Anecdotally the number of places that reject my personal amex is very close to zero (there's one cafe enar me which doesn't take it). > I see no real reason why to use Amex over Visa or Master/Maestro Cashback/rewards, and it's accepted on Amazon in the UK after this year is a really good reason to use it over Visa at least. Maestro is non-existant in the UK. Maybe mastercard is a better choice, but I carry two cards _anyway_ , so one might as well be an Amex, and the second should be a mastercard?

pittmajp 5y ago

What about all the free money you're leaving off the table in miles and cash back? I've had a credit card for about 3 years, and while it isn't much, I've never paid a dime in interest and I'm up roughly $800.

ahoka 5y ago
Big corporations giving people free money sound kinda unbelievable, don't you think? They must actually make money on card holders for this to be profitable. The obvious way is that some people will overdraw sooner or later, the other is that people with credit cards simply tend to spend more (some say about 10-15%). The average credit card debt in the USA is more that 6000$.
- vel0city 5y ago
  The "average credit card debt" is a bit difficult to really measure. That isn't necessarily the amount of interest bearing credit card debt which IMO is the real concern. I've have some credit card debt, none of it carries any interest. When I buy appliances or furniture I usually take the interest free financing despite having the ability to pay. Why pay a few grand today when you can spread that out interest free for 2 years and let that value appreciate? I would have lost out on tons of money if I had sold investments up front to buy those goods. So instead of getting rid of all that money a year ago, I got 30% gains in the market.
nly 5y ago
Perks on credit cards in the UK are almost non existent because the fees are so low compared to he US. Historically the EU regulated to crush credit card transaction fees. That said, I do get annual cashback of 1% on one of my cards.
- cjrp 5y ago
  Cashback perks aren't great, but the airline credit cards are quite good if you'll definitely use the miles.

mattowen_uk 5y ago

> Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so. Bizarrely, never owning a credit card will negatively impact your credit rating.

gifnamething 5y ago
Expecting someone to lend you 6 figures when you've never displayed any ability to repay 2 is far more bizarre.
- maccard 5y ago
  A credit rating basically isn't considered for a mortgage in the UK. They will check a report, and maybe request you pay outstanding debts (I was asked to clear my CC balance before completion both times), but unless you have a fraud marker or are bankrupt it won't affect you. Mortgages are secured on the asset, so it's far less risky than a personal loan of 5x less - the bank can seize the asset and force the sale of the home (and that difference in risk is reflected in the difference in borrowing rates).
  - chanc3e 5y ago
    My experience is they do indeed dig into your credit report and will approve/deny based on it. Not sure where your information to the contrary comes from? https://www.which.co.uk/money/mortgages-and-property/mortgages/getting-a-mortgage-with-poor-credit/bad-credit-mortgages-ay2m91n0u9mu https://www.which.co.uk/money/mortgages-and-property/mortgag...
    - carnitine 5y ago
      They explicitly mention a report. It’s just the number rating which is irrelevant.
  - TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
    Most UK CC T&Cs state explicitly "If you have a home, we will go after it if you default." Personal loans have similar recourse. Neither are truly unsecured. It just takes longer than an outright repossession because it takes two or three court claims instead of just one. The debt collection industry relies on this, and regularly forces sales of property to pay back CC and other debts. So CCs are disastrous for people who can't pay their debts. Not only are the interest rates extortionate, but for lenders they're almost as safe as a secured loan. And because of the high rates they can be considerably more profitable.

baq 5y ago

90% of this is what a credit card already is... the only tricky thing is the limit which might not be as easily configured, but it certainly can be.

heurisko 5y ago

> Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so. I own a credit card, as you get additional consumer protections using a credit card rather than a debit card in the UK. Pay it off in full every month. No problem.

ricardobayes 5y ago
It is an insurance policy then. Have you calculated how much this insurance cost you? Credit card fees, the inevitable 'forgot to pay it off' etc.
- GoodbyeMrChips 5y ago
  In the UK, credit cards are free (some specialist cards aside), including an automatic direct debit so you never forget to pay it off, so you never get charged interest. Never paid a penny in fees or interest in over 15 years.... and an annual statement of fees (issued by law) informs me of this fact each year.
  - smaryjerry 5y ago
    Same in the US. Credit cards are so convenient and free and come with rewards. Of course most people don’t realize until they are older that all that ‘money back rewards’ was essentially paid by themselves originally, by the vendor paying the credit card company a fee on every transaction. The issue is that credit card companies build in requirements to be endorsed that they don’t charge different prices for cash only transactions often.
- fuzzer37 5y ago
  Yes. Anyone paying fees on a credit card should jump ship, that's a huge red flag. And I've made more in cash back rewards than I'll ever pay in interest.
- tialaramex 5y ago
  There is no "inevitable forgot to pay it off". Last century when I was old enough I got a credit card and the bank set it to automatically pay off every month. The bank says to itself, full balance of this account this month is say £462.83 and must be paid on or before the 7th of December, then it sets a transfer to occur from my checking account for the amount £462.83 on the 7th of December. No "forgetting" possible. Indeed if say an IT problem occurs and they can't do that transfer under UK law they eat the fees incurred. "The customer must be made whole". As to fees, the merchant doesn't have to accept cards, as we see with Amazon, if they don't like the fees. Why should ordinary consumers care? When we were part of the EU the cards couldn't charge excessive fees, now Brexit allowed them to unlock this potential source of profit.

dustinmoris 5y ago

> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, ...and can't get a mortgage and buy a house because you have no credit score.

simonh 5y ago
You don't have to have running shoes to be able to run. I haven't owned a credit card for 15 years and my credit score is just fine.
- dustinmoris 5y ago
  That's not how it works in the UK though. You need to be having credit in order to build up credit score.
  - simonh 5y ago
    Sure, I've taken out loans, had several mortgages, multiple bank accounts, paid all my utility bills. All of that can influence your credit scores. It is possible some people could have so little credit history that having a card for a while might be beneficial. I don't know enough about the system to be sure, so maybe I was being a bit flippant, for which I apologise.
sildur 5y ago
That only applies to the US.
- dustinmoris 5y ago
  Nope, that also applies in the UK.
- hackeraccount 5y ago
  It's wildly overstated in the US. Having a CC and not paying it off in a timely manner definitely affect your score but the difference between having a card and not having one isn't as big as people make out. If you have proof of income you're going 90% of the distance.

ryanlol 5y ago

> you're spending your own money I can’t even begin to imagine how you could see this as an advantage. It’s really not.

aysfrm11 5y ago

In Europe just using debit cards is perfectly viable in 99% of the cases, however when it comes to car rentals you are still in some locations forced to provide a 'real' credit card. I write 'real' since most of the FinTechs like Revolut, N26 etc often issue debit cards that may fail in exactly that situation. It doesn't help if your account is flush with 10k USD and a car rental could easily block 2k for claims on your debit card, some will just not accept Revolut & co. Thus I am always forced to carry an emergency backup credit card from a major bank just to be on the safe side... Very much looking forward to the day some other means of international payment (crypto?) will be generally accepted.

ricardobayes 5y ago
I am so fortunate to live a in a truly free country that has not yet caved in to most of the western crap despite being a western first world country. Spain. Here the rental companies accept even cash, and the person who pays doesn't even need to be the same as the one who rents.
londons_explore 5y ago
They require a credit card because credit card companies have robust ID and credit checking. If their ID checks weren't great, someone could steal the whole credit limit. Banks and debit providers also do ID checks, as required by law, but don't check anywhere near as hard, since there is no way to steal money from the bank if your account can't go negative.

rlpb 5y ago

> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero In the UK, it's really hard to get a bank account where they'll do that. Instead they'll pay it, call it an "unauthorised overdraft" and then charge you for that. This is their business model - it's how they make sufficient income to operate. There are "basic bank accounts" which don't provide a credit facility, but these only exist because people with poor credit histories can't get bank accounts otherwise, and the regulator has threatened to enforce their availability otherwise. However since this means that there currently isn't any rule, the banks make it very difficult for an ordinary person (with good credit) to open a "basic bank account".

imwillofficial 5y ago
“it's how they make sufficient income to operate.” No. This is how the practice parasitism on the poor.
- rlpb 5y ago
  To be clear, I don't agree with it, but it is how the current account market in the UK operates. More information here: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03941/SN03941.pdf https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03... And a Supreme Court decision here: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2009-0070-judgment.pdf https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2009-0070-judgme...
Closi 5y ago
> In the UK, it's really hard to get a bank account where they'll do that. I'm pretty sure all of them do, just ring up your bank and ask them to set your overdraft limit to 0 I've certainly done this with HSBC & Santander in the past, and when I got my Monzo account it was 0 by default (You had to sign up for an overdraft if you wanted one).
- rlpb 5y ago
  An overdraft limit of 0 just means that you end up in an unauthorised overdraft sooner. Monzo might be an exception here.

tigershark 5y ago

How is this better than having a single credit card that gives you automatic protection and insurance on everything that you buy without having to think to stay under your self imposed limit otherwise you have to manually top up the card with the amount that you need to spend?

effie 5y ago
You can set it up more easily in Europe, getting a credit card is not as easy here.

Bobylonian 5y ago

My mom has exactly the same system with her two debit cards and I have not taught her that - she is naturally smart. So proud of her and you too ;) Cheers!

ethbr0 5y ago

Do UK credit cards typically offer cash back? In the US, 2%+ on all purchases (either directly or through points) is pretty standard. Going up to 5%+. But I know this can be very different in other countries. I believe Japan has little to no incentives?

kmlx 5y ago
amex does this in the uk