what ? im Aussie and im 60 I’ve been using credit cards as an Aussie for 35 years or so.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a credit card, i have 3 with a $0 balance that are paid off automatically monthly (I use 1 exclusively and the others are backups). I earn a extra month of income in a HISA and get JB HiFi and Woolies/Coles gift cards as rewards. I also have 5 debit cards because they give them out like candy every time you open an account somewhere and never use any of them at all, aside from one occasionally at the ATM.
I said “mostly a US thing” for a reason! Australia is definitely one of places where credit cards are more common. Still, from what I checked now, only around 50% of adults in Australia own a credit card, let alone use one.
In US they are popular becase they give lots of rewards (which may be the case in Australia, you definitely know better than me). These rewards come from charging credit card fees to merchants. In the EU the law protects merchants from unreasonable credit card fees, and without charging fees, there are no rewards. And without rewards, there is no point in using a credit card day to day - leaving it only for emergencies, etc.
As you said, you use it because you get nice rewards for it, which makes sense. These comes from the credit card companies fleecing sellers. In countries where the law prevents that, it just isn’t a thing.
what ? im Aussie and im 60 I’ve been using credit cards as an Aussie for 35 years or so.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a credit card, i have 3 with a $0 balance that are paid off automatically monthly (I use 1 exclusively and the others are backups). I earn a extra month of income in a HISA and get JB HiFi and Woolies/Coles gift cards as rewards. I also have 5 debit cards because they give them out like candy every time you open an account somewhere and never use any of them at all, aside from one occasionally at the ATM.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/150?g=369
I said “mostly a US thing” for a reason! Australia is definitely one of places where credit cards are more common. Still, from what I checked now, only around 50% of adults in Australia own a credit card, let alone use one.
In US they are popular becase they give lots of rewards (which may be the case in Australia, you definitely know better than me). These rewards come from charging credit card fees to merchants. In the EU the law protects merchants from unreasonable credit card fees, and without charging fees, there are no rewards. And without rewards, there is no point in using a credit card day to day - leaving it only for emergencies, etc.
As you said, you use it because you get nice rewards for it, which makes sense. These comes from the credit card companies fleecing sellers. In countries where the law prevents that, it just isn’t a thing.