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There is no choice. It is literally illegal for me to buy a decent laptop with cash in Portugal for example.

Why is that? Can you provide a source? (Not distrusting you, but it would be great to have a source because I'm a writer and interested in writing about these things.)

Maybe because of this https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/shopping-internet/cas...

It's the law. You can't pay in cash for anything above three thousand euros. If you're a company the limit is even lower at 1000 Euros. Interesting though that a foreigner, such as a tourist, can pay up to 10 thousand euros in cash as long it's not a business transaction.

This is a lie.

Not much else to say about it, it just is not true.

I know people living in Portugal, first hand, with pretty beefy and expensive laptops.

He means buying it in cash. Anti money laundering / tax evasion laws in some places prohibit using cash above a certain limit

It is still a lie.

I think the limit in Portugal for cash transactions is around €3k. You can buy a pretty great laptop with that

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