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Comment by gpvos | Hacker News Reader

Does someone have a list of countries where credit cards (as opposed to debit cards) are actually popular (apart from the US?) I'm in the Netherlands, and I only use mine for international online payments, and I have it with me as a backup (but seldom use it) while travelling abroad. And even then, it's automatically paid off in full every month, so the credit function isn't really doing much. For the rest I use cash, or have a debit card from my bank, which is accepted in most European countries. As for acceptance, hotels and restaurants, and tourist-oriented shops generally accept it, but otherwise almost no-one. (Edit: added emphasis on credit cards as opposed to debit cards.)

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South Korea here. Nearly everyone has a credit card, and every legitimate business accepts them. The government has been trying really hard for the last 10 years or so to force everyone to use plastic, primarily as a means to curb tax evasion by small businesses. Consumers can even get a tax credit for the amount they spend with a credit card.

Debit cards (called "check cards" here) are becoming more popular lately. Thanks to the aggressive adoption of credit cards, the infrastructure to handle debit cards was already there by the time the government decided to extend the tax credit to debit cards as well. Nowadays it's a toss-up between credit cards and debit cards.

But what we call credit cards here is a bit different from the American counterparts. Most Korean credit cards require you to pay the whole balance every month, unless you specifically request a different payment plan at the time of purchase. The amount you have to pay for each of the next few months, including interest, is also fixed at the time of purchase. You can't just pay an arbitrary fraction of your balance or transfer your balance to another card. So it's halfway between a traditional charge card and an American-style revolving credit card. Some banks do have revolving credit cards available, but AFAIK they are not very popular.

This situation is identical to the one in Israel.

> This situation is identical to the one in Israel.

Although they are still called credit cards ("kartisei ashrai" == "כרטיסי אשראי") in Israel, and there are some other minor wrinkles, like the way you pay interest rather than penalties when you overdraw your bank account ("overdraft" == "אוברדראפט"), though it is still more expensive than a loan, so something like 3/4 of the population is always overdrawn by some amount.

Credit cards are popular in the UK, though 2.8x more is spent on debit cards. Total spends on credit and debit cards are £174B and £486B, respectively. For some numbers see pg 9 of the UK Card Payments 2016 report here: http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/downloads/index.asp

Actually I'm pretty sure my only card (here in France) is a credit card. It's written "credit" on it, after all (it used not to say it, but I was issued a new one recently precisely because regulations now say it has to be written on the card, apparently).

But until I lived in Canada, I had never really understood the difference between debit and credit cards, I didn't know you had to manually pay your credit card's balance from your bank account once a month or so.

My "credit" card just pulls money from my account at each purchase (well, a few days later). When I was in Germany and the Netherlands last year, every shop was asking whether my card was credit or debit, and I wasn't even sure what to say.

that sounds like a debit card to me.

To me too. It certainly is written CREDIT on it though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debit_card#France

Dunno how accurate it is, but i suspect your card has either a VISA or Mastercard logo on it. That means that when you are abroad the payment is done via either of those, but while in France it is handled via the national system.

It pretty much is, in the sense that there's no revolving credit associated with the card, merely a monthly limit (typically 2 or 3 thousands euro) and your account will be overdrawn if there isn't enough money when the bill is charged.

The thing is, both Visa and MasterCard have credit and debit versions of their cards. And thanks to recent European laws, the card has to explicitly state which kind it is, since the transaction fees are different for the merchant (and are capped to 0.3 and 0.2% respectively). Now in France, you won't get a Maestro or Vpay card even if you want a true debit card. It'll be a MasterCard or Visa. Payments are either debited right away or at the end of month. And banks have started to emit "debit" cards for the former, and "credit" versions for the latter, but it's completely irrelevant for domestic payments.

In Fiji the govt charges a levy of 2.5% on every credit card transaction, so they are rarely used day-to-day. Debit cards are the norm.

Norway here, it's super popular. The only place in my entire life that I was not using a credit card regularly at was the local flea market, but last time I went there they even had one of those portable credit card things. Otherwise, I use it to pay for food, taxi, bars, just everything.

Even if I need to send some money to a friend to pay for my share of the pizza, we use an app that lets us send money between credit cards.

I haven't carried coins on me for more than a year. I do have one backup bill hidden away in my wallet just in case things go sour.

Are those actual credit cards or are they debit cards? If you pay for something, when does it bill your actual account?

They are debit cards.

Most bank cards issued in Norway that i have seen are debit first via the national system, with the option of using either a VISA or Mastercard as a second option.

And while i have only had to deal with VISA, those billed directly to the account (and seems to be a popular way for paying online).

Unless Norway is wildly different from Sweden then most use a debit card.

Many people carry a credit card too, perhaps as a free service from their bank, or a company card - but so long as one has both it's normally best to use the debit one. If you always pay the bill in time there's very little difference, but I feel a big mental threshold to "buy now pay later".

Aren't you using a debit card, not a credit card? Those are very popular in NL too. There are even some shops that don't accept cash anymore (something I think that should be made illegal, but that's a different story), although on the other hand there are shops that only accept cash.

>something I think that should be made illegal, but that's a different story

Why does everything need to be made illegal? If you aren't satisfied with the service a shop provides, don't shop there.

Legal tender should always be accepted. Imagine if you were unable to buy food because you were denied credit.

This is why in the US we have debit cards that behave like credit cards in every way except the credit line (and don't cut you in on the transaction fee). Very popular with teenagers and people who are afraid of credit (possibly for good reason).

Cash is legal tender for all debts. If you owe someone money without a prior agreement on form of payment, they must accept cash payments. They're under no obligation to make a transaction in the first place if you don't agree on payment method.

It's a form of arrested development I think - wanting the state to take care of their every trivial complaint.

Just because they have the VISA or Mastercard logo on them do not mean they are credit cards.

That's the thing, debit cards are so common in Scandinavia so many people call them "credit cards" ("kreditkort") even though they're really not.

Likely because most of them come with the option of making payments via either the VISA or Mastercard network if the national system is not an option (traveling, some bars and restaurants, online purchases).

In Finland everyone I know has a card that is both debit and credit - you choose everytime you make a payment which side to use.

Pure debit cards also exist, but are not that common, at least what I know.

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