> apart from it being very difficult to get a credit card (amusingly, my bank wouldn't issue one to me even as the proceeds from the sale of my company were sitting in my checking account)
I ultimately ended up getting a secured card, just so I could rent cars from more car rental places; that card, presumably still secured, is my only credit card. I don't understand credit cards, at all.
I don't get "easy access to credit" with debit cards. Which is the part I don't understand! There have been many periods in my adult life where cash flow has been a significant problem for me and my family, but it has never even occurred to me to use revolving credit as part of a solution to those problems.
I'm not litigating whether unequal access to financial products is a bad thing. Inequity is a bad thing. We're on the same page there.
But when discussions like this come up and people imply that a bad credit score is somehow life-changing --- that just doesn't connect with my life experience? Like I definitely didn't come up rough or anything, but I feel like to the extent that there's value in access to these particular financial products, I'm well within the cohort of people who would perceive that value. And... I just don't get it? Like: a debit card from a good bank has actually pretty solid fraud protection? And lack of access to 2% rewards doesn't seem life changing?
> There have been many periods in my adult life where cash flow has been a significant problem for me and my family, but it has never even occurred to me to use revolving credit as part of a solution to those problems.
I don't support paying interest on credit card bills either, but some cards come with a "0% on balances for ~12 months" welcome offer [1], which might help a little if cash flow is tight, but the borrower knows that some income will be guaranteed in the coming months.