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> The advice I hear is to get a credit card and use it like a debit card, always paying off on schedule. Why can't decades of debit card use and living within my means demonstrate the same thing?

Having a history of using a debit card to only spend as much money as you have does not really reflect much about how you will behave when given the ability to spend money that you don't have (credit).

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I disagree. As someone with a history of blowing past my debit card allotted overdraft amount (though more recently am much better), I think my history with a debit card would show that I was young and foolish, but I have learned better and I wouldn't be a problem now. But I'm only spit balling, you may have more insight to shoot this down.

That's why, in the US at least, overdraft fees have been banned. Allowing overdrafts and then charging exorbitant fees turned debit cards into basically just a worse credit card.

Could also be interpreted to indicate a lack desire to even have the ability to spend beyond their means.

Having the ability and not using it is a much more powerful signal than not having the ability.

Considering the ease with which credit cards can be obtained, and all the incentives that often come with them, I would argue that argument doesn't nearly carry as much weight here as it would in other cases.

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