You're ignoring history and momentum. (I am likely wrong on some parts of the below). Credit cards have been present in the United States for a century (I belie

You're ignoring history and momentum. (I am likely wrong on some parts of the below). Credit cards have been present in the United States for a century (I believe originating as store credit), within becoming ubiquitous after the mag strip was invented in the 1970s, and really starting to replace checks and cash in the '80s and '90s. Because of this, the US had a very large infrastructure and consumer momentum to continue to use credit cards. Adopting another system requires banks and merchants to all agree on such the system. Without government intervention, that's pretty hard. Many nations didn't have such systems in place, so they were prime to have their own technology be brought forward. That's why WePay was able to spread in China. The other huge factor here is that forcing things on companies in the US is extremely difficult. Our constitution and laws make it a lot more difficult for the government to force certain behavior on private businesses. Along with the cultural idea of free enterprise, people don't like the government making decisions for them on how a business should be run. In India, the Bank of India and the government was able to force UPI down everyone's throat, and companies have no choice on the matter.