| UK here, I use credit card for almost everything: 1. (As everyone says) consumer protection. I can dispute a charge to a CC and am not standing out the cash (unlike debit) 2. Debit transactions don't have any inherent limit. The bank might flag a very large transaction but once a debit transaction is underway it can't be stopped. I had > £10k stolen from my online account via a debit transaction and though the bank made good, still, bad taste. 3. Most important if you are young - using (and paying off) credit card will improve your credit score which helps you when you do need the credit. 4. Delayed payment. Even when you clear your debt every month you're still getting the benefit of 30 days free credit on your purchases. In our current savings-rate environment this is somewhat moot but anyone who travels for work or has significant work expenses that they have to wait to get reimbursed for will find this a major feature. Lending your employer money really sucks. 5. Rewards cards. These have gone crappy over the last decade but if you are in a role where you have significant work expenses or where you put most of your expenditure through the CC it can be worthwhile to hunt around for and switch cards for deals. Spending £1000 at Amazon/year on a debit card will get you exactly £0 in rewards. Even 1% cashback would be worth having. The only downside to CC's I see is that some people can't trust themselves with credit - they'll spend up to their limit and get into a spiral of debt. If you don't do that, they're better than debit cards in my opinion. |
1) I've been able to dispute payments on my debit cards without any issue, they were always reversed instantly by the bank. Maybe I've been lucky, I don't know. And for the "bank is liable for your purchases" thing - that doesn't apply to anything under £100 either.
2) That is a stupid limitation of UK banks, not debit cards in general. I have a bank account in Poland and for the debit cards with that bank I can set individual limits for internet transactions, terminal payments, CNP(card not present) transactions as well as ATM withdrawals - with separate daily/monthly/temporary limits. Why British banks don't implement this is unfathomable to me.
3) I suppose, I have no comment on this really.
4) yes, but then you need to remember to pay it off and how much exactly, which is a bit of a pain if you have your daily spending mixed in with bigger purchases that you want to pay off over a longer period of time.
5) Again, personal experience - other than 0% interest on purchases, never had a credit card in the UK with any rewards whatsoever.
And yeah, it's not about downsides of CCs - it's just that when I pay for my daily shopping with my debit card it's out of my account, I know how much I have to work with at any given time, done. As I said elsewhere, I can't be arsed to work out it if my spending is spread across multiple accounts and different forms of credit.