Meanwhile in Europe, there is no reason to have a credit card instead of debit. On the contrary, it's more risky to have a credit card rather than debit as on debit cards the limit for overdraft is usually way lower than how much someone could spend with your credit card.
I'm 30+ and never owned a credit card, nor had any reason to get one.
There concrete reasons to use one in Europe (at least where I live):
It's a month's free loan - why spend your own money when you can keep it invested or otherwise working for you for a month first for free?
Consumer credit law is still stronger for paying on credit than on debit.
I used to fly transatlantic first class once a year for free based on just my credit card rewards. I'm not some unusually high earner either. What possible reason is there to turn that down?
If I remember correctly, banks here also always give you a debit card when you sign up with them, while credit cards have to be applied for separately and also usually has a yearly fee, compared to debit cards that are free.
Say you're ordering something large like a car. You can pay the deposit on a debit card, and lose access to the money immediately, or you can pay on a credit card, and keep your money invested for another month or so, still earning you money, until you need to settle.
A credit card gives a consumer liquidity. I don't think it's an unusual economic concept to say that liquidity is useful and helps you use your money more efficiently.
I suspect for the vast majority of people it's going to be negligible at best.
I would guess it might be seen as a cash advance and charged interest immediately, also not accrue into the loyalty rewards. But I don't really know.
Much easier to get your money back, e.g. in common 2020 situation of cancelled flights.
Definitely true.
> Meanwhile in Europe, there is no reason to have a credit card instead of debit
Ehh, I'm not sure I'd agree 100% with this one. You can certainly get by with just a debit card (and enjoy the access to e.g. the chargeback scheme) but I find credit cards a useful tool to build credit (and my credit history built up by never missing a CC payment undoubtedly helped me out when I applied for a mortgage).
There's also the benefit of rewards which, although are smaller than in the states (because the interchange fees are better regulated), you may as well take advantage of.
I'd add a footnote to this to say: I use my CCs purely as charge cards and have a direct debit set up to this effect.
Edit: not a complaint, just found it funny that someone thought of to downvote me a minute after I wrote my comment, because me and others around me don't need credit to afford a house? HN sometimes is funny.
Fair enough! I wish that were the case in my part of the UK ;)
B) How long you've had the job?
C) How much is your salary?
D) You have family?
And so on. Bunch of questions and documents back and forth until the bank is confident you'll pay back.
It's funny to hear people from North America talking about the scary new Chinese "Social Points" system when they've had credit score for such a long time they don't even think about it anymore and find alternatives strange and hard to imagine.