[account42]

> (Even in forst world Germany, an affordable CC is hard to come by)

For kids, yes. For adults, you can get "free" bank accounts with a credit card. Might not get much of a credit limit, but you can always move money onto the card beforehand.

[kuschku]

That heavily depends. Most banks (excluding Bunq, DKB and N26) only offer a "free" CC with a paid account, or a paid CC with a free account.

Even branded products like e.g. the Amazon CC or the BahnCard CC have an additional monthly fee on top of everything else.

(A significant factor being that the EU has a limit on CC fees of 0.2%, which is exactly the same cost as cash costs on average, and is almost twice the cost of the GiroCard system. The second largest factor is simply that Germans usually don't go into debt, so all the profitable traps the CC companies have designed won't work)

[account42]

Don't the three options you listed show that it's not hard to get one?

[kuschku]

They make it easy to get a debit card (CC costs extra even with those banks) - but you can only use it at an ATM 5 times (usually per month or per year), you have fees if you use it for certain purposes, and you can’t get a regular GiroCard (which is free, always and for all purposes).

So sure, you can get a debit card for free, but that's got so many asterisks attached, it's not worth it.