[criddell]

The downsides aren’t really self-evident to me. I’ve been using credit cards for everything I can for 35 years and I can’t think of any downsides. Even the cards I’ve had that had annual fees I chose to pay that fee because the benefits were worth more than the fee to me.

I can think of plenty of times where the upsides of having a credit card were realized though.

[tptacek]

You don't know anybody in 5-figure+ credit card debt? I know several. I don't know anybody in debit card debt.

[criddell]

No, I don’t know of anybody who has a big credit card debt. I don’t think I’ve ever carried a credit card balance past my payment date.

I did have a six-figure debt to a bank and if didn’t make my payments they would take the house from my family! Much higher stakes than any credit card debt I’ve ever had.

I do have a debit card though and it’s actually not that different from a credit card. If I spend money not in my account I would get charged a $25 overdraft fee plus interest.

[tptacek]

I think that's weird, because I can count off 6 or 7 just off the top of my head, people I know reasonably well, all of them well-educated, and smarter & better organized than I am. I don't really understand the argument we'd be having here: obviously, empirically, credit card debt is an enormous problem in the United States.

[criddell]

I haven’t really talked about that kind of stuff with people I know. I could be surrounded by people who have big debt and just don’t know.

A quick googling says that about half of all credit card holders carry some kind of balance each month, so clearly there must be some people in my orbit not paying it off.

[tptacek]

I'd be one of them, but I can't be, because I don't use credit cards.

[criddell]

I’m too much of a cheapskate to carry a balance and pay interest. And it’s my cheapskate tendencies that makes me use the credit card for everything for the benefits.