Comment by juliangmp
13 days ago
I never understood the credit card thing Why would I want to spend money on loan by default? Why do the Americans do that all the time? What's the benefit?
13 days ago
I never understood the credit card thing Why would I want to spend money on loan by default? Why do the Americans do that all the time? What's the benefit?
I can't answer for Americans for a whole, but I live in the USA and I pay with credit card by default. My personal reasons:
* Cards are convenient. No need to go get cash, no change at each transaction to manage carrying around. * Cards give a discount in the form of "cash back". (As mentioned elsewhere, this really just inflates the cost of everything for everyone, but I might as well claw it back.) * I don't actually go "into debt". I pay off my card (automatically!) every month, and incur no interest charges. I use it like a slightly deferred debit card with benefits.
The last bullet being significant to your point: I don't "spend money on [a] loan".
For consumers, the risk of fraud is bear by the bank, not you, because you're spending the bank's money instead of yours. For banks, they make money through interests from the customers that don't pay off the bill each month.
They make more of their money from transaction fees and selling transaction data. The interest is a nice bonus.
Because it’s not my money but the banks money :)
Of course it only works to your advantage if you pay your credit cards in full every month.
The benefit is to the banks, making huge money this way!