While your points are valid and I personally don't like the inefficiencies, the challenge is that credit card companies are good at hiding these details from co

While your points are valid and I personally don't like the inefficiencies, the challenge is that credit card companies are good at hiding these details from consumers. 1) Rules are in place so merchants can't markup products when using a credit card so the standard displayed price already includes the markup and cash paying customers are typically not rewarded. 2) An annoyance for customers, but it is mostly the credit card companies on the hook. The credit card companies know this but calculated the money lost to fraud is still outweighed by consumer convenience. Also, we are seeing things like Apple Pay starting to address the credit card number. 3) But there is an advantage to people who do know how to stay within a budget and not overspend. First, if money is stolen or their is a dispute, then the credit card issuer is on the hook and they have a strong incentive to resolve the issue quickly and fairly. When money is taken from your bank account as in a debit and there is a problem, you may have liquidity problems as you wait for this to be resolved. Liquidity problems can cause huge problems for people. 4) Yes, they are inefficient, but banks deal with this (mostly), generally not consumers (unless you are talking about ACH or wire transfers). (The exception is 'what credit cards do you accept here' if the answer isn't all of them.) 5) Yes, though since currencies fluctuate, it is kind of a messy problem and credit cards at least made it convenient. Bonus) I'll also add that credit cards have both reward incentives and protection policies, which most people seem to forget about. (I usually have to remind people that if they used a credit card to purchase a computer and it broke just out of warranty, they probably have an extra year of extended warranty through their credit card.) And people seem to go crazy for frequent flier miles and such rewards, even though it may not be totally cost effective in the end.